


Origin of Flowers

by Jodaneko



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Hanahaki Disease, Identity Reveal, M/M, Post-Black Organization Takedown (Meitantei Conan), Soulmates, kinda.. it's not explicitly stated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25598404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jodaneko/pseuds/Jodaneko
Summary: "...I see the red string of fate, entwining two figures, but then there’s tension in the string, four thumbtacks shaping the string into an infinity symbol, which then shifts into an hourglass. The sand slowly runs out from the top of the hourglass, revealing a flower bud. It blooms, coiling into a white chrysanthemum flower. The glass is shattered, and light pours in, the white cape and clover making a reappearance as they flutter past the flower. Between the petals, blood bubbles up, dying the flower red, before it contorts away into nothing.”
Relationships: Koizumi Akako/Nakamori Aoko, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Comments: 31
Kudos: 165
Collections: kaishinbigbang 2020





	1. Mixed Zinnia

The gentle blowing of the breeze and the slight scent of sakura that accompanied it would indicate, such as any other day, that nothing extraordinary would take place. Sunlight trickled it’s way through the overhead trees, dappling the path with it’s light as Ran chattered on next to him. She asked a question and he answered back noncommittally. Annoyed as she was with the response, she didn’t hit him too hard as they walked down another winding side path back towards the dorms. Shinichi closed his eyes, breathing in lightly through his nose as he simply let himself bathe in the comfortable atmosphere of it all. It had been over a month since he had last accidentally encountered a body, and at least three months since he had successfully dismantled the Black Organization and helped put away those in the upper echelon. 

Since the take down, Haibara had refined her cure for him to return to his life as Kudou Shinichi. Ran and the Detective Boys had been sad to hear that Conan was to go, but he couldn’t get himself to feel the same way. He hadn’t wanted to restart his life under a fake name, and especially not continue it when he had so much to look forward to as a proper adult. Those concerned had all gathered outside of the Mouri Detective Agency to say goodbye to him, and he wasn’t too surprised when his mother had come completely decked out in her disguise for the most dramatic whisking away of a child he had ever witnessed, leaving all those who were present feeling bittersweet about the departure. In the car ride, he had nearly had to plead with Yukiko to let him go to the Kid heist nearby. His mother had been against him going, saying it was time he moved on since he was going to transition back, but his father had waved away her concerns, insisting that Shinichi needed it for closure. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that, but they had made the detour regardless to allow Conan to go.

He had kept up with his usual antics (aiding the police and making Kid work overtime to not get caught), so as not to make him suspicious, knowing how astute the phantom thief was when deciphering his emotions: Apparently he did not do so well enough, since when he intercepted Kid on the roof, his face was already adorned with a frown.

“Meitantei-kun, what’s this all about?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Conan said, fighting the rising anxiety in his chest at those words.

“You left me so many openings tonight that for a while there I thought that you were leading me into some sort of trap, but I know it’s not that or you would’ve already said something snarky and infuriating like you always do.”

Conan wanted to refute that, wanted to banter like normal, but didn’t: he had already been found out, there was no reason to try to pretend otherwise. Swallowing his complaint and squaring his shoulder as best as he could, he took a tiny step forward, locking eyes with the phantom thief, who’s expression didn’t seem to change at his attitude shift. “I’ll be leaving Japan…” Kid’s face _did_ change at that, his eyes widening slightly and his mouth opening for a split second before he hardened it into a thin line, thoughts clouding his face. Drawing in another breath, he took one more step forward, not backing down from the anxiety he could feel in his chest begging him to not go through with this. “I… I won’t be coming back. This is my last heist.” The phantom thief completely froze at that, not that he already didn’t stand abnormally still, but it was even more evident as the wind that usually whipped around the top of the building fell still as well, Kid’s cape barely rustling in its absence. 

“You-”

“I wanted to tell you sooner.” Conan cut him off, his eyes darting to the ground between them. He traced Kid’s shadow with his eyes, fighting to keep calm as he felt tears surge upwards. “But I wanted things to be normal ‘till the end, and I didn’t want you to worry about me, and I didn’t-” he couldn’t finish the last sentence, his throat closing as he felt a tear make its way down his face. After the first, soon followed the others. He closed his eyes briefly, forcing the rest out as his hands clenched into fists. How embarrassing. This had been the very thing he had wanted to avoid. He went to wipe at his cheek angrily, when he felt a gloved hand catch his wrist, another hand swiping at the runaway tears in his stead.

“It’s okay, Meitantei-kun.” He felt Kid’s arms wrap around him, his breath catching at the unexpected closeness. “You don’t have to explain: I forgive you.” He saw as the moon, hanging low in the sky, turned into a blurry circle as the tears he had been trying to hold back all came rushing out. From that point, the rest of the night went by fairly quickly: He didn’t know how long he had cried into Kid’s shoulder or how he had explained away his silence in the car ride following to his parents, though he does recall them exchanging worried glances to each other. It was the one thing that he held onto once he got back home and had to take the medicine to revert back, the one thing that grounded him as he went through the pain of returning to an eighteen year old’s body, which had been the most draining transformation thus far.

Due to the drawbacks of the drug Haibara had developed, she had given Shinichi about a weeks time of projected recovery for him to be able to function without assistance in his original body once again, and another two or three weeks for him to get back the muscle mass he had possessed beforehand. While these side effects weren’t present in the other medicines he had been given, it’s because they had been temporary reversions and not permanent ones, or at least that’s what Haibara had insisted on. Either way, he had trouble just sitting up and eating food the first couple days without any help. He didn’t like not being able to do anything by himself, but it gave him a ton of time to catch up on the schoolwork he had missed, which proved to be useful, since as soon as he was back up to Haibara’s health standards, he was sent back to school around the time midterms began. Wonderful.

Since his recovery, he hadn’t had any time to really do more detective work or catch any heists, nearly all his time going back into school and rejoining the soccer team so he could get a scholarship to a nearby university with a good forensics program. He hadn’t had time to explain to Kid that he’d be able to come back as Shinichi rather than Conan, and everything else that had entailed, but he figured that it was best he hadn’t been able to seeing as how busy he had gotten. Now that he had successfully made it to college, and things were starting to settle down a bit, he had finally begun to feel… relaxed? It was the only way he could describe what he was feeling, but it still felt so foreign that it was hard to feel at ease with it. He was learning to accept it little by little, and Ran had definitely helped him get used to returning to normal.

Shinichi looked over at Ran, who still seemed content in continuing to complain about one of her professors and the amount of work she had already been assigned. He nodded in sympathy when she looked over at him for support before resuming. He couldn’t help but smile, because while his romantic feelings had faded, he had a new respect for her as a sister figure, probably from all those months as being Conan.

He shakes his head, refocusing himself on the conversation Ran was having with herself as they finally approach the dorms again.

“I’m just saying, if you’re going to give out that much homework you could at least have the decency to grade it.” She ended with a huff, slinging her backpack off her back to retrieve her keys.

Shinichi shrugged, leaning against a nearby wall as he flipped open his phone to see if he had a any new messages. He didn’t. “He probably depended on his TA to do all the grading for him, and since they’re out sick right now, he doesn’t want to do any of the work himself and decided it’d be a completion grade instead.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make it right.” Ran said, pointing her keys at him before jamming them into the lock. “I didn’t spend over three hours finishing that packet last night for this to happen.”

“You’re not wrong there, but I’m sure the effort will be appreciated nonetheless.” He said, trying to be reassuring, giving a light pat on her back as she rolled her eyes humorlessly.

“Nothing you say will convince me that this semester isn’t going to be a long one with that professor.” He laughs as he follows her into the dorm room, setting his bag down at the entrance as she plops down onto her bed. She groans and rolls over, throwing an arm dramatically over her eyes. “I don’t want to go to the study session.”

“I thought you were the studious type?” He teased, poking her side. She swatted at his hand as she sat up, poking him back.

“No, _you’re_ the studious type, and _I’ve_ been up since nine A.M.” She yawns, as if to prove her point. “Besides, I’m sure Aoko will understand if I just text her to reschedule.”

“Oh? The girl from Ekoda?” He remembers vaguely from other study sessions he had sat in on, mostly because they looked nearly identical until Ran had cut her hair short. “You’re probably right, she’s plenty smart enough to skip a study session or two, but you?” He watches as his friend’s face contorts into a knowing grimace. “Not so much: that math class is still kicking your butt.” She whines and puts a pillow over her face, muffling her words for a bit until she pops her head up, locking eyes with him.

“I’ll go.”

“Great!”

“But you’re buying me dinner tonight.”

“What? Not great.”

Ran giggled at that, jumping off her bed to pat his head, a bright smile back on her face. “You’ll be fine, you’ve got a ton of money to help me keep my sanity, right?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever, I just hope Nakamori-san doesn’t mind that I’m tagging along.”

“She won’t.” She chirped as she twirled around and headed to her closet, speaking over her shoulder as she walked away from him. “She was gonna drag along Kuroba-kun anyways, so at the very least you won’t be alone.” He found himself nodding at that but then stopped, realization dawning on him at what had just happened. Ran had always intended to go to the study session. Her pouting hadn’t been about going, but rather manipulating him to go on a social outing with her. Shinichi had been played.

He could only shake his head at himself as she came back around the corner in a different outfit and dragged him back towards the entrance, chattering about how she hoped that Shinichi hadn’t been planning on resting or getting a bite to eat yet because they had to get going _now_ to make it in time. He was barely able to grab his own bag before the door closed shut behind him, the key clicking it locked.

“Alright, since you don’t have the same math course to worry about, you can write that essay you’ve been procrastinating on while Aoko and I are studying, or maybe decide to make a friend for once.”

“I have friends.” Shinichi says, feeling a frown forming on his face as he crossed his arms.

Ran smiles at him in a way that shows obvious pity. “The Detective Boys don’t count, no matter how much they’ve come to adore you.” He feels his face heat in indignation as she laughs in the face of his discomfort. “Professor Agasa is a family friend, I’ve been with you since your childhood, and Heiji-kun befriended _you,_ not the other way around. You need more friends your age.”

“You didn’t have to word it like that.” He muttered to himself as he readjusted the bag on his shoulder to a more comfortable position before beginning to follow Ran’s quick steps away from the dorms. “Who did you say Nakamori-san was bringing? Kaiba?”

“Kaito, Kuroba Kaito, and he’s pretty fun to be around, unlike a certain someone.” She side eyes him as he puts a hand to his chest in mock hurt.

“Whoa, did I miss the memo or is it “Drag Shinichi Time” right now?”

She laughs again, shaking her head at him as she leads them towards downtown. “You know I don’t mean it like that. I’m just worried for you is all. You’re a good person, and I want other people to be able to get to know that about you too.”

“Okay, nevermind, go back to being mean, that’s just embarrassing.” The heat spreading across his face let’s him know that the blush has begun to creep down his neck, and he’s not proud of that at all. He ignores the way Ran attempts to stifle her giggles with a punch to his shoulder that’s for sure going to leave a bruise the next day. She goes to apologize after he had winced, but her laughter begins anew upon seeing his face, which gives him little hope that he’d be making a good impression on anyone anytime soon. 

After crossing three more streets and walking another half a dozen blocks, she finally stops him at an older looking café tucked behind a much larger, neighboring book store. Ran peered through one of the side windows and waved to a girl inside, who waved enthusiastically back. He squinted a bit and saw it to be Aoko, who nudged the person next to her, who looked up from a laptop to wave to the two of them. Shinichi felt his heart leap into his throat, mind racing at the fact that _Kaito Kid_ was here at this café. Then he stopped his gut reaction, forcing himself to calm down and think rationally. There’s no way he’d just reveal himself so plainly in the middle of the day, there was surely another explanation.

Shinichi locked eyes with the boy, taking in his features as a new person. Lithe, lanky, dark hair and bright eyes, not any more unusual then he was. Everything that he could see pointed to this being a perfectly normal college student such as himself. This was not Kid, this was Aoko’s friend, Kuroba Kaito: not an internationally renown phantom thief. After shaking his head a bit to get rid of wayward thoughts, Shinichi took a steadying deep breath to ease his nerves and forced himself to smile. As he went to wave back, however, he felt something bloom in his chest. Literally. Turning almost violently to the side, he coughed hard, feeling something come up his throat, wanting to come out.

Ran turned to him, unease evident in her voice as she patted his back in an attempt to get him to cough up whatever it was, but he saw a single flower petal fall into his hand and decided to swallow back whatever it was that was stuck in his throat, fist clenching in response. It was painful, but he managed to do so as he straightened himself back up. He waved her off, wiping at his mouth with his other hand. “Haha sorry, accidentally inhaled my own spit, don’t worry about it.”

“The last time you said not to worry, you ended up missing for a week and came back with a broken arm.” Ran said, hands on her hips. Shinichi blinked, and then remembered, that oh, yeah, guess that did happen. He looked over his shoulder, back into the café and saw that Aoko looked a bit concerned, but he didn’t dare look back at her friend, fearing for the same reaction as earlier. His throat itched at the thought.

“You’re right, I’m sorry for that.” He commented distractedly, turning to Ran again. “Would it make you feel better if I went to see Agasa instead of staying for the study session?” Her brow furrows at that, conflict showing itself on her face as she seemed torn on what to do. “I promise I’ll still get you dinner.” He said almost pleadingly, seeing the two in the shop getting up to come and see what was taking so long. “I’ll even get you dessert.” Despite still seeming uneasy, she nodded at that, forcing herself to smile.

“Fine, but you’re coming to the next study session. Don’t think I forgot about that essay of yours.” He managed to laugh at that, but then started coughing again when he saw Aoko’s friend come out the door behind her. He clenched his one fist a bit tighter.

“Is everything okay?” Aoko asked, sounding distressed at seeing him like that.

“Oh, yeah.” He cleared his throat, looking over Ran’s shoulder with an appeasing smile, “I was going to join you guys tonight, but I forgot I had a doctor’s appointment to get to. Pollen’s been really getting to me lately.” Ran huffed next to him, knowing it was a lie, and for some reason, it seems Aoko’s friend, Kaito was it?, also felt the same way about his statement. Aoko seemed to be the only one who believed him though, as he saw her face morph into a happier expression.

“Don’t worry about it, you can join us next time. Hope you feel better.”

“Thank you Nakamori-san, I hope next time I’ll be well enough to join you. I trust you to take care of Ran’s atrocious math grades.” Aoko giggled a bit at that and earned a scowl from Ran, but she didn’t say anything. Shinichi bowed a bit to them as he excused himself, coughing once more when he accidentally looked back up at Kaito. How peculiar, maybe he was allergic to meeting new people, he thought to himself sardonically. He waved goodbye to Ran before quickly making his escape around the corner, where he pulled out his phone and dialed the number from his emergency contacts list.

“Kudou-kun, what is it? You don’t usually call me at this time of day.”

“Sorry Haibara, but I’m coming over to Agasa’s real quick, think you can run a test on me?” he asked, still feeling a bit of a lump in his throat. He moved a hand to his neck, rubbing it in an attempt to soothe whatever it was as he heard her standing from her desk chair (identifiable by the squeak they hadn’t been able to get rid of after it had been broken one too many times).

“Do you think it’s a side effect of the antidote?” She asked, stoic voice as always, but he knew her too well, could tell by the lilt in her voice that she was worried, and that this was her way of showing concern without saying it aloud, and it resonated differently with him then Ran’s worry had. Maybe it’s because Ran still didn’t know of his time as Conan. He sighed at that, hailing for a taxi as he neared the city center. 

“Let’s hope not.”

“I should be ready by the time you get here.” 

“Thank you.”

“Hmph.” Shinichi’s phone clicked as the call ended, and he could only presume her worry was much more potent then she cared to let on if she didn’t even dane to respond properly, usually too proud and snarky to let him get away with just saying thank you. As he got in the cab and gave the driver the address to Agasa’s place, he let himself sink into the seats, finally unclenching his fist. He looked down at the white petal in his hand, and could only stare on in confusion. What was going on with his body


	2. Gooseberry

Paying the cab driver, Shinichi made his way up to Agasa’s house, announcing himself as he passed the threshold and took off his shoes at the entrance. Haibara greeted him, who must’ve been just standing there for a while, but still scaring him quite a bit. He didn’t let that show, instead passing her the flower petal that he had held onto the entire ride.

“Do you know what this is?” He asked as he coughed lightly.

“Hello to you too.” She said a bit snidely as she looked down into her palm, her eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. “Is this supposed to be a flower petal?”

“From what I can tell? Yes.”

“...and you’re giving this to me… why?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He jokes as she gives him a stern look, an expression far too old for the small body she had chosen to continue inhabiting. “I’m kidding Haibara, I know most things can’t really phase us after what we’ve been through but uh, yeah, no.’ He cleared his throat, pointing to the petal and saying as casually as he could, “I coughed that up earlier.”

Her eyes narrowed at him, looking between him and the petal for a sustained amount of time before sighing in a grandiose fashion, waving him back to her lab. “Alright, let’s see what’s wrong with you now.”

He followed her to where her lab was, lying down on the table there without her instructions to do so as she grabs a prepared cotton swab on the counter parallel to him. As she begins taking test samples, she starts running down a couple of her preliminary questions.

“Where does it hurt?”

“My throat. It feels scratchy and like something was trying to come out when I was coughing.”

“I see. Any other symptoms?”

“Nausea and dizziness.”

“When did this first happen?”

“Today.”

“Do you know what triggered it?”

Shinichi paused, trying to remember if anything stood out in the moment, but he coughs again and shakes his head instead. “Not any I can think of.”

“Okay.” She jots down some notes on a clipboard and continues. “Well, have you done anything different recently?”

“Like?”

“Change in diet?”

“No.”

“New hobby?”

“No.”

“New friends?”

A pause. “Not really?”

“...You really do lead such a boring life outside of cases, don’t you?” She sounds almost disappointed.

Shinichi can’t help but sigh, turning away to look a little past the overhead light. “That’s what I’ve been told.” He hadn’t said it very loud, but Haibara stalls for a bit, the questions stopping with her, before she comes back from her pacing and puts a small hand on his arm. He startles at that, looking over to see her eyes trained on him, not quite as intense as he had been expecting. Instead, he found there to be some sadness, shared with another emotion he couldn’t quite identify written on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she manages to get out after a while, head turning to the side in her own embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to upset you.” He goes to protest, wanting to tell her it was alright, but she cuts him off. “You’re already going through enough right now, I shouldn’t have said that… I’m... trying to not jump to insulting you so quick. Everyone really, but you especially.” He sits there, not quite sure what to say, but could tell it had been weighing on her mind for quite a while from the way she was speaking.

“I know it hasn’t been easy for you to readjust to being an adult again. You’re back in school now, going to college, and I didn’t even go with you, deciding instead to wait till the end of my time as a primary schooler. It’s selfish of me, I know. The Black Organization is dismantled, I have no reason to stay a child but…” she looks back at him, determination in her eyes. “I’m not ready to leave the friends I’ve made, and I can’t leave them...not yet.”

He must’ve made some sort of face, because her lips quirked downwards in an annoyed manner. “That includes you too, you know? I’m not being sappy for the fun of it, I’m letting you know that just because your visible age skyrocketed past mine, doesn’t mean you can get rid of me.”

“I’d never dream of it.” He almost laughs, and her eyes soften just a bit. She gives a resolute nod, marking a return to her tests, her custom made lab coat making a swishing noise as she started her pacing between the computer in the corner and her many devices. Shinichi let his mind wander back to what Ran had said earlier before they had reached the café, about needing more friends his age and all that. Since Haibara had brought up the topic as well, on the same day even, he felt like he had to actually take it into consideration some more. Sure, he had connections, but a lot of them were forged as Conan during his pursuit of the Black Organization, and now that he was back to being Shinichi, the relationships he had had with most of them had either disappeared or changed drastically. Plus, given he couldn’t stay friends with elementary schoolers without letting the world know he had been a child again for the length of almost a year, he had to limit interactions with the Detective Boys as well. Not that they knew he was Conan, but it felt nice to be able to foster the love for mysteries he’d had at that age in them as well… wow, maybe he did need more friends.

Haibara announced that she was going to give him an X-ray and requested his presence in an adjacent room, and he was more than happy to leave his thoughts behind on the examination table. About a minute later, she came rushing into the room, turning on the film viewer and throwing up his X-ray with haste. He blinked for a bit, looking at the image and then back to Haibara, who was looking at him expectantly.

“Is… is that a flower?” He finally mused aloud, a bit nervous.

“Yes, it does seem to be that way. And from the way it’s positioned, it seems this one is on your way to your stomach since you swallowed it back down.” He looked at the X-ray again, and couldn’t tell how she could tell that, but figured it wasn’t worth interrupting her to ask. “What’s really bothering me is this lump up here.” She points to a small, dark mass in his rib cage that seemed to have taken root, if the little squiggly lines coming out of it were of any indication. “It seems to me that you have this organic mass rooted in either your trachea or bronchi that, likely, produced said flower.”

Haibara continued talking as Shinichi felt a clenching in his chest, a buzzing noise filling his head as he tried to find a way to process the information. He was growing flowers, in his lungs? That was even more outside the realm of plausibility then he had been anticipating. It’s the kind of thing you’d tell kids to prevent them from swallowing seeds, a white lie they’d believe for a bit but would ultimately never hurt them. That kind of thing never held any truth to it… right? There was just no way that-

“Hey!”

Shinichi’s head snapped up at that, one hand still tangled in his hair as Haibara looked at him with a concerned expression.

“Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?”

“Mhm, yup. There’s flowers in my lungs.” Her eyes swept over him, narrowing slightly as she seemed to see right past his defenses. Sighing, she turned off the film viewer and sat down in front of him in her swivel stool.

“Go home, Shinichi. I’m not expecting you to be able to understand all of this in one go, especially not after nearly coughing up a whole flower. There’s still a lot of test results that need to come back before I can really understand what’s going on here, so don’t worry about it too much right now, okay?” He nods numbly, trying his best not to let his anxiety get to him despite what she had just said. “Seeing as this is the first time it’s happened, I doubt you’ll have another attack occur again any time soon. Given that, I also know you’re not aware of what might’ve triggered it, so just as a precaution, avoid anything that might trigger your body to remember the first incident.

“Of course, if you find yourself exhibiting the same symptoms, or new ones, don’t hesitate to let me know. I will, in turn, keep you updated on anything I find out as the lab results come out.” Shinichi nodded again, and she put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a brief, reassuring squeeze. “You’re gonna be okay: you’ve survived much worse.” 

\- < O > -

Kaito frowned at his phone: the animation of his character coughing up blood before falling to the ground letting him know that he had failed his mission, again. He leaned back into the cushions, looking over at Aoko and Ran laughing about some drama they both watched the night before as he chanced a glance at the clock again.

It was getting late, and as much as he loved hanging out at this little secluded spot, he wanted to go back home, feed his doves, and then feed himself… but he knew that Aoko wouldn’t leave until Ran did, and Ran wouldn’t leave until Shinichi got back to her, which meant he couldn’t leave because he was Aoko’s ride. He shook his head to himself, getting up so that he could stretch a bit. His motions must’ve caught Ran’s eye, as she stopped in the middle of her sentence and began to look around, as if just realizing how dark it had gotten. Checking her phone, she voiced his thoughts with the addition of how worried she was that Shinichi hadn’t texted her back yet.

“I’m sure Kudou-kun’s fine.” He heard Aoko say, “He might’ve just fallen asleep.”

“I suppose so,” she responded a little distantly, and Kaito looked over at that, catching her cast a wistful gaze out the window. “I just hope nothing bad has happened to him is all.” Oh, right: Shinichi used to cause her quite a bit of trouble as both himself and Conan only a couple months ago. He went to say something, but before he could say anything, Aoko had already reached a hand across the table to squeeze Ran’s reassuredly, a soft smile gracing her features.

“Well, I’ll be here to wait for him with you.” Ran smiles back at that, though he could tell by the way her shoulders were set that her worry wasn’t gone. Figures. 

“Thank you, Aoko-chan. It means a lot to me. Just…”

“Just what?” His friend prompted, leaning forward eagerly. He took a sip from his juice. How did they manage to be so dramatic at every turn?

“Shinichi was sick only a couple months ago shortly after he came back, and I’m just worried that it’s resurfacing again, especially when we never really figured out what it was in the first place that caused him to lose so much of his muscle mass.” Ran looked down at the table, pausing for a bit as she tried to collect herself. Always so quick to turn on the water works. “I already lost him once for almost a year, and I couldn’t do anything about it then… so now that I  _ can _ do something, I don’t intend on letting that happen again.”

“Of course not.” Aoko said reassuringly, though Kaito could tell by the lilt in her voice that she was a bit confused and  _ a lot  _ more concerned about where this was going, because while she had heard a little about Shinichi, she had not  _ experienced  _ Shinichi, and the absolute train wreck he was up until recently.

Thankfully, Ran’s follow-up comment was cut short by the chiming of the bell from the door, where a slightly disheveled Shinichi stood, panting. The two girls stood at that, mouths a little agape at the appearance of the person in front of them. Kaito watched on quietly, waiting for someone else to make a move as he took another sip of his juice.

“Sorry, Ran.” Shinichi eventually got out, smiling at her in an apologetic way. “My phone died right after I left, so I couldn’t let you know that I was on my way back. Hopefully I didn’t worry you too much.” He gives the driest laugh Kaito’s heard in a while, full of doubt and guilt, but Ran either doesn’t notice or ignores this to instead placate his worries, saying that  _ of course _ she didn’t worry, since she knew that he could take care of himself and then some. Aoko pointedly looks over at him in exasperation, as if they both hadn’t  _ definitely _ seen her almost in tears a couple seconds before. Oh the emotional resilience of young women, how he envied their flexibility in that field.

“So what did the professor say?” Ran pressed after a bit of stalling, the same worried look from earlier settling back onto her features. “Is everything all right?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, Hai-I mean, Agasa is still running tests,” he fumbled out, Shinichi’s eyes darting over to Kaito for a reason he couldn’t explain, before he gave a light cough and quickly averted his gaze back to Ran to continue, “but they said that I should treat it as if I had a mild cold for now and just take it easy for a while.” 

“Thank goodness.” Ran put a hand to her chest, a natural smile forming. “I’m glad it’s not anything more serious.”

Shinichi laughed at that, not giving a verbal response before turning to look over to him and Aoko, bowing slightly. “My apologies to you two for causing such a fuss.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You can’t help being sick.” Kaito heard himself say before he could actually process the words coming out of his mouth, putting his cup of juice down in favor of patting him lightly on the shoulder. 

“Right! Like what Kaito said.” Aoko said, “We hope for your speedy recovery.”

“Thanks you two.” Shinichi says with a relieved smile as he straightens back up, “I’ll do my best.” It was an expression he hasn’t really seen before coming from the detective, and it definitely caught him off guard, not that anyone noticed of course, but even after his smile faded, he could still feel the legitimate warmth that had radiated from him in that moment. How bizarre. 

He couldn’t help his own smile that spread across his face at the next thought, the giddiness he felt similar to planning a heist. How wonderful, how great it was, that he still had some things to discover about his adversary: the great detective who faced him on building rooftops during moonlit nights. Shinichi began coughing again, cutting off Kaito’s elated thoughts as everyone rushed towards him.

The detective put up a hand, the coughing ceasing almost immediately as he insisted that he was fine, but Kaito didn’t miss the way Shinichi clenched his fist after saying that. Something was amiss, for sure, but he didn’t know him well enough to get those kinds of details from the source of it all… not yet at least.

“I better get going, still got dinner to buy and all that.” Shinichi says lamely, sparing a brief glance Kaito’s way before turning back towards the door.

“Oh, of course. Have a good night you two.” Aoko chirps, Ran’s farewell mimicking her with a quick wave as she and Shinichi exit together. Once the two of them are out of sight, Aoko plops back into her seat with an exaggerated sigh. “I’m sorry about that Kaito.”

He looked over at his childhood friend, rightly confused at what she meant as she gave him puppy eyes.

“This was meant to introduce you two, you and Shinichi I mean, in hopes that you guys would become friends, but then he got sick and instead of everyone getting to hang out it ended up being a worry-fest over his health. Agh, this sucks.” Aoko slid lower into the cushions of the booth, lamenting over the whole situation.

Kaito’s eyebrow twitched slightly at that. What were they? Two domesticated cats that needed to be introduced slowly so that they didn’t attack each other? He shook his head at that, sitting down next to Aoko and patting her head in an attempt to comfort her regardless. He had to give credit where it was due, it was a lot less subtle of a plan then he could’ve thought of to reach out to his dear detective.

“You meant well, and hey, it’s not the end of the world!” Aoko huffed at that, not looking up. “At the very least, he knows my face now, and I know his, so it gives us a reason to greet each other on campus.” He paused, but she didn’t say anything. He ruffled her hair instead and she gave a shout of protest. “Don’t pout, c’mon, I mean it.”

“I’m not pouting!” Aoko objected, swatting at his hand. “But I still feel bad about it. I brought you out here and you didn’t even get to talk to me all too much because I was just doing homework.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It gave me a good excuse to not have a Skype dinner with my mom. She’s been rubbing in my face all the good food she's getting to eat in Las Vegas right now so I’d rather not have to suffer through a full night of that.”

His friend laughed at that, her cheery attitude bouncing back as he complained about the story his mother had attempted to tell him the night before about this  _ wonderful salmon dish _ that he  _ must try  _ because it was so good. After a while, Aoko had forgotten about the whole incident, Kaito leading her out of the café so that they could start heading home, 

The car ride back was completely devoid of any talk of the detective, only of plans to get together with Akako when she comes back to Tokyo at the beginning of next month. While he wasn’t keen on going, knowing she’d give him another prophecy or two as she used to in high school, Aoko begged him to go with her because she was too nervous to go on her own. After giving her a hard time about her crush, he agreed to go along just as he got back to her dorm, to which she hugged him through the car window. While it was a bit awkward, he made sure not to complain too much.

“Oh, speaking of friends from high school, have you been in contact with Hakuba-kun?” She asked, leaning against the side of his car.

“Psh,” Kaito waved a hand in front of his face dismissively. “What? No way. I’m glad to be rid of him.”

“Don’t give me that,” Aoko rolled her eyes at him knowingly. He had learned to open up to her about more things once he figured out her crush on him had disappeared, but that of course meant that she knew  _ exactly _ how lonely he had been when Hakuba had left to go back to England. Kaito had been pissed he hadn’t been told and refused to mail him for a month afterwards, but had also griped almost every day to Aoko how unfair it was that he had been left behind. “You were so attached.”

“Was not.”

“Was to, and you should probably message him and see if he’ll be in town in a month, that way we could all meet up. I’m sure Akako would love to see him again too.” Aoko suggested gleefully. “And even if you don’t, you should reach out anyways. He’s one of your few friends, and I’m sure even a dummy like you can realize the value in that.”

He attempted to glare at her, but all he got was a boop on the nose. “Ugh, alright, fine, I’ll reach out to him.” Kaito said, exasperated. “Now get going will you, I’ve gotta drive myself back home too.”

“Oh, right, my bad.” She laughed, backing away from the car. “By the way, check inside the console!”

He looked over to the center of his car, trying to recall when, if at all, the console had been opened during the trip. He turned back skeptically, “Why?”

Aoko giggled, a hand covering her mouth as she ducked her head. “You’ll see, bye!” And then she turned heel and ran. He muttered to himself before twisting to see what she was so excited about, only to find a little folded up paper with his name on it. Opening it revealed a small message with a number scrawled across the bottom of it.

_I still feel bad about what happened today, so I texted Ran and got Shinichi’s number for you!_ __  
_Don’t be weird or prank him too much, okay?_ _  
_ __03-1448-1629

“That sly girl,” he murmured, putting a hand to his head. “She must’ve picked up on my sleight of hand after all this time… impressive.” He pulled out his phone, and started dialing, “Welp, seeing as she’s made my job much easier, guess it’s time to keep to my promise.”


	3. Daffodil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how yesterday I said I'd post the next update on Sunday? Yeah, that was a lie lol  
> You're getting it today.

Hearing his phone go off, Saguru threw an arm out to silence it, the alarm going quiet as he sat up in his bed, squinting. The light from outside the window brighter then he would’ve liked, but he couldn’t really complain about the sun doing its job, now could he? Blinking, he turned to his phone again and noticed that what he had silenced wasn’t the phone’s alarm, but rather an incoming call. 

How unusual. As soon as he thought this, the phone went off again, and he quickly picked it up to answer it. “Yes?”

“Hakuba! It’s about time that you picked up, why’d you ignore my call, huh? What if I was in danger?” He winced at the loudness, and pulled the phone away from his face to double check the time before groggily putting it back to his ear.

“Kuroba-kun, I hope you’re aware that it’s not even ten o’clock here in London, and to answer your question, you never call unless you need something from me, so the implication that you’d call if you were in danger is ridiculous.”

“I’m offended that you’d doubt my implication, I consider you one of my better friends.” He pinched the bridge of his nose at hearing Kaito pout on the other end of the line, though it did tug a small smirk onto his face. 

“Yeah? Well don’t be too proud of that since there’s not much competition to begin with.”

Kaito gasped over the line. “You don’t mean that.” He gives a non-committal answer, because he’s bad at expressing himself but he’s not about to disclose that to anyone, least of all a phantom thief. Said thief begins to fake cry, so Saguru picks up his pocket watch from its box on his night stand table and waits five seconds before deigning to ask if he was alright. He gets a grumbled mock response before he admits to being okay, if not a little hurt, to which Saguru decides to steer back the conversation to being meaningful.

“So why did you call me, if not because you needed something from me?”

“Oh, haha, right. Well now I feel silly for calling you, because I’m sure you’ll tease me about it all later, followed by asking why I didn’t do my own research first, and to be fair, I have, but I’m more then certain you’ll know better than  _ I  _ would about all this-”

“Kaito.” He said as sternly as he could, causing the other to quiet quickly at the use of his first name, “Stop rambling and get to the point.”

A beat passes. “What do you know of Kudou Shinichi?”

“Does this have to do with the heist?”

“What? No, nothing like that.”

“Okay, then why do you want to know?”

“...why do you think?”

“Did you just answer my question with a question?”

“Didn’t you just do the same thing?”

“I…” Saguru stopped, because he  _ really _ wanted to argue back, because that’s what he got used to with Kaito, but he knew this was what Kaito wanted because he always did this when he wanted to avoid something. “You’re deflecting.” Kaito spluttered.

“Am not.”

“Are too, you called me for another reason, didn’t you?”

“No, no, no no no no. You are not turning this around on me. I came to you for the exact reason you suspected, I needed to ask you for something, and that something is information on a one, Kudou Shinichi.”

He could see it in his head, the exact expression Kaito was pulling as he tried to convince Saguru that what he was saying was true, and yeah, maybe a minute ago he doubted his thieving friend’s intentions, but now he  _ knew  _ what his intentions were. He was saying it with the same finality and tone he used when he insisted that he wasn’t Kaitou Kid. 

“Mhm, and I’ll answer all the questions you want me to answer on him.”

Saguru heard the breathing on the other line stop, and he almost grew concerned with the lack of an answer until he heard a nervous laugh burst forth.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I am.” He confirmed, nodding as he finally swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Leaning forward onto his knees, he huffed into the phone amusedly, an act Kaito would often describe as a scoff. “After you tell me your other reason for calling.”

“This is exactly why I stopped calling you. You and you detectives always getting stuck on the wrong details.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re the right details if you’re objecting to it, now hurry up and tell me before this gets painful for the both of us.”

His friend sighs on the other end of the line, and Saguru is very close to doing the same himself. Much like the sun shining, he could not complain about a magician trying to hide his tricks. Though, it wasn’t usually this easy to be able to figure him out, but maybe he was just getting better at it, or, the even rarer option, was that Kaito might be opening up to him. Saguru kind of hoped it was the latter.

“Alright.” The thief said from across the line, “Aoko was wondering if you’d be in town in a month.”

“Aoko-san? That’s a strange question coming from her.”

“It’s when Akako is coming back to Tokyo for a bit.” Kaito complained, sounding annoyed. “I don’t want to be a third wheel but Aoko practically begged me to go. I couldn’t say no.”

“That’s right, Aoko-san did seem to be particularly fond of Akako-san didn’t she? But she’s too nervous to go on her own, so she’s asking if I can go too to make it seem more like a reunion than a date.”

“Mhm, though she’s already achieved that with my presence I’d say. Back to the question though, can you make it or no?”

“Sorry, I don’t think I’ll be available during that time to be able to return to Tokyo. Please, pass on my regards and apologies to Aoko-san.” Kaito hummed in acknowledgement as Saguru moved to a stand. He walked over to his wall calendar, scanning each week till he found when he’d actually be returning. “But, do let her know I’ll be returning for a bit sometime in mid-June to help assist with some police work and will probably have some time to visit around then before returning to England.”

“Really? Are you even in school yet?”

“Not till September.”

Kaito made a disgruntled noise on the other end of the line before replying. “Lucky. This is like an extended summer break for you.”

“I assure you that my break isn’t without it’s own work to be done. But if we’re not going to talk about Kudou right now, then I’m going back to sleep. I was up till very late reading up on a case and I would like to get at least one extra hour of sleep in before having to be functional.”

“Completely fair, I hear you on that. I’ll call you later then?”

Saguru smiled at that, nodding to himself before realizing that Kaito couldn’t see him. He cleared his throat instead to divert from the silence he had caused. “Yes, rather no. I’ll call you after I’ve gotten sufficient rest since I assume you won’t be going to bed anytime soon.”

“You’d assume right. Later.” The phone gave off a soft  _ beep _ to let him know that the call had ended, so he shuffled his way back to his bed, but not before fully shutting the curtains and landing in bed roughly. He was trying hard to be more upset at being woken up early, but the feeling was evading him for some reason. Saguru threw a blanket over himself, face burying into a nearby pillow. Whatever, he could do that later.

\- < O > -

It’s about a week later when Shinichi finally gets a response back from Haibara, and it comes during the middle of class, of course. He whispers apologies as he tries to sneak a peak at what the message was, cursing at himself for not having silenced the phone before he had entered. Granted, even gazing at it now, he was unsure of what the message was supposed to mean.

_ Are you related to the imperial family by any chance? _

He had really been hoping for news on the test results, but he supposed some contact was better then none. He texted back that no, he was not, or at least not to his knowledge, in anyway affiliated with the imperial family of Japan. After turning down his volume and switching off his ringer, he went back to paying attention to the lecturer. Well, only partially. After Haibara had sent back another cryptic message of “that’s unfortunate,” and “see me after classes,” he was barely able to keep himself from darting out right then and there.

As soon as his professor dismissed class, Shinichi basically bolted out the door, sending a quick text Haibara’s way to let her know he was heading over, but not before he grabbed a spare change of clothes and a snack from his dorm.

The entire ride to Agasa’s place, he couldn’t stop his leg from bouncing, though he tried to keep it as lowkey as he could after the taxi driver spared him one too many glances. Instead, he opted to scroll through his messages, only to see the still unanswered texts from “Kuroba-kun.” Shinichi suppressed his very sudden urge to jump out of the car. The guy was nice and all, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he  _ knew _ him already, somehow. He put a hand down firmly on his bouncing knee to keep it from getting faster as he tried to reason it out to himself.

The chance of him being from the remnants of Black Organization were extremely slim, especially since it was really only a matter of time that the government agencies in charge weeded out the rest of the people still in hiding since they had full names, faces, and family registers of those who weren’t present during the initial take down. Not only was the chance of that being slim because of the lack of a dangerous vibe he gave off, but also because… well, Kaito was simply too careless and attention seeking: it was simply out of their modus operandi.

Sure, was he hiding something? Definitely. Could he tell what it was yet? Nope, but knowing him, it was probably just Kaito hiding a family line of magic tricks, not something like being internationally renowned phantom thief, Kaitou Kid. Shinichi chuckled to himself at that, but it turned into a cough again, and he really didn’t get why.

He was going to tell Haibara about this symptom, he really was, but then he realized that if he told her, she’d forbid him from going to heists, because maybe, maybe somehow, Shinichi had all of a sudden become allergic to the thought of Kid. Clearing his head, he sent out a declination of an invitation out that weekend to Kaito, knowing that he had been assigned to go into the police headquarters to help out with paperwork, and, even if he managed to finish early, he’d be exhausted and not up to trying to make small talk, no matter how much his own childhood best friend bugged him about it.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to think too much more about it, because he had arrived at his destination. He paid the taxi driver and quickly entered, greeting Agasa and exchanging pleasantries with him before Haibara requested his presence in her lab. The professor pat him on the back with a hearty smile, before wishing him luck and disappearing into the kitchen.

Shinichi stands in the doorway for a bit, being ignored by Haibara, before he knocks on the side of the wall. She jumps a bit in her seat, despite having called him down herself, and turns around in her swivel chair in a way that would give most cartoon villains a run for their money.

“So, you figured something out?” He started, nervous on if he really wanted to know the details about a flower growing in his lungs.

“I figured out many things Kudou-kun, and might I just say that given everything you’ve gone through, I’m surprised you haven’t dropped dead yet.”

“That’s incredibly comforting.” He says in his best sarcastic voice, following her small form as she crosses into an adjacent room. “Do you have any good news? Can we start with that?”

Haibara paused in her work, cocking her head at an angle as she seemed to run through the things she had called him here to tell him about. “Hm, I’m not sure if there  _ is _ any good news. It really depends on what  _ you _ mean by that.”

He closed his eyes, counting to three before he exhaled through his nose as slow as he could. After this was all over, maybe he could convince Haibara to give him some anxiety meds, because he was really starting to feel like he was going to start needing it if this was how all their meetings were gonna be like.

Her coat flaring behind her as she spun, a file found its way into his hands as she returned back to her chair in front of the computer. “Inside, you’ll have instructions on self-care and the details I’ve been able to nail down so far about this strange disease.”

“Disease?” He echoed, flipping open the file to be greeted by a black and white photo of a flower. “Wait, is this a picture of a chrysanthemum?”

“Mhm,” she hummed, “I ran a biological decomp on the petal you gave me last time and figured it out via my handy machines.” She pulled up one of her scientific charts onto the computer screen, promptly angling it his way for a better view. “And as you can see here,” she said, pointing to a bell curve-graph in the corner, “the flower petal was right at the stage where it had just bloomed, which should theoretically be impossible given that the proponents for it’s growth should’ve been unavailable. The nutrients it needs to survive shouldn’t have been able to make it down the trachea in large enough amounts to make it possible for it to get to that stage, and let’s not even get to the fact that getting it access to water and sunlight were impossible, which means we can cross off at least one thing.”

Shinichi blinked, expecting her to continue. Haibara blinked back, as if this was some weird telegraph game. He sighed, leaning back against the wall, his arms folding neatly against his chest. “And what would be the thing that we can cross off?” Her small mouth split into a grin as she closed her eyes as if to not allow him to see just how happy she was.

“I’m so glad you asked that.” She clicked a button on her keyboard, changing the screen on her monitor to change into a new chart, one with more hyper specific scientific readings. “ _ It means _ that it couldn’t possibly be because you inhaled the seed at some point after which it decided to take root and grow.”

“But isn’t that exactly what’s happening now?” He asked, confused by what he was being told and how she was presenting it. “Like you said, don’t all flowers need the same basic components to survive? And if they don’t have those set needs met, then how is it supposed to have even grown in the first place?”

Shinichi couldn’t believe it, but her smile actually  _ could _ get wider. “That’s the most fascinating part, Kudou-kun. It isn’t like every other flower, in fact, when I looked at it’s cellular composition, I found out it didn’t  _ need _ sunlight and water to grow, because it can be sustained on your breathing and eating patterns alone!” He stared at her, seeing the excitement radiating off her like it would a normal kid, but in such a way that it almost felt intimidating, because this was  _ his  _ body they were talking about: sure it was fascinating, but he just wanted to be told what all of this  _ meant _ . His silence must’ve relayed that to Haibara or something, because she turned back to the chart on her screen and started to point at it frantically, like it would explain everything. “Don’t you see? The flower is being completely fueled by cellular respiration. It’s taking the sugars you consume, using the air that you use to breath as a fuel, and turns it into its own food source. It’s doing all of this in such high quantities that it negates the chrysanthemum’s need for water or sunlight. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She beckoned him over from his spot on the wall, eagerly pointing a document in his folder. He moved forward into her range so that she could slip it out and point to the medical chart he had been given a couple months back. “Remember how you said you felt drained of energy shortly after taking the antidote to APTX-4869? And how I had recommended you start to eat more sugary snack foods to boost not only your energy levels, but to also help your body form more proteins after your permanent shift back into an adult body? I think the fact that you took to them so well is because of this disease, which relied heavily on your consumption of sugars to be able to boost it’s growth rate after it’s initial formation.” Her smile finally diminished at that, Haibara’s hand losing it’s confidence as she brought them to wringe in her lap.

“I… I think it’s partially my fault that this happened though.”

Shinichi didn’t say anything, connecting the dots in his head immediately. He went to say something, but she held up her hand. “The antidote I made caused this, I’m more than certain. This means that I have to go through the entirety of my notes and take another look at its chemical composition to be able to figure out what exactly messed with your body enough to have this thing form. If I can figure it out from there, I might be able to find a way to either a) successfully extract the organism from your body or b) cure you completely of the disease. Obviously there’s a lot of work to be done on that front, but, if you’d trust your health to me again I’d… I’d really appreciate it. I want to make this right.”

It was a lot to take in, obviously, but he hated how sad Haibara looked. She refused to make eye contact with him, and especially since she still retained the small form of a child, he just wanted to hug her and tell her that it was okay, and that she couldn’t have possibly predicted this outcome. Really, who could’ve?

Sighing again, Shinichi ran a hand through his hair, collecting himself. He knew her, knew that she appreciated being treated like the adult she was despite her stature, so he kept himself from hugging her and only went to ruffle the hair on her head.

“Of course I trust you. I would’ve never made it this far without everything you’ve done to make a cure in the first place, so really, I should be asking you to help me out again.” Haibara looked up at him hopefully at that, and it was so unexpected that the detective felt his cheeks heat up slightly as he was overwhelmed by the simple emotion. “I’m expecting good work from you.” He says almost in monotone, rubbing her head a bit more before turning away.

“If this is all,” he raised the folder of paper in indication of what he was talking about, “then I’ll get going. I’ve got a heist to get to tonight.” 

Haibara went to shake her head, but then paused and nodded swiftly. “Yeah, have you experienced any more coughing fits since last time? And if so, have you noticed the cause or gained any new symptoms?”

Shinichi immediately thought back to the Kaitou Kid thing, and decisively shook his head. “Uh, yes, no, and no. I’ll let you know if I do figure something out though.” He says, making a beeline towards the door, “They’re expecting me to be there soon, so I’ll message you later, okay?” And then he swept out of the room without waiting for a response.


	4. Acacia

He wasn’t gonna lie, the Kid Task Force had taken his pranks incredibly well today. Either they were getting a more positive outlook on life, or they had learned to expect this sort of thing now and were no longer phased by it. Kaito frowned at that, arriving at the rooftop as per his usual routine to check the Sphinx’s Eye against the moonlight.

Hm, what could he do to spice things up for them? After all, he needed to keep them on their toes, not let them get complacent. He heard some gravel move behind him, and he tugged his hat a little lower on his head, pocketing the gem for later. Well, perhaps he should make sure he doesn’t get complacent first.

Turning with a grand flare of his cape, he faces Kudou Shinichi, the Great Detective of the East, a devilish grin set in place. “My, my, meitantei. Didn’t take  _ you  _ very long to return to one of my heists. Am I really that irresistible?”

Shinichi shook his head at that, though Kaito didn’t miss the way his own smirk had appeared on his face. Ah, so he did have a sense of humor afterall. “I shouldn’t be surprised you knew of my alternate identity,” he laughed, a hand pushing back his hair as the wind continued to try to sweep his bangs over his eyes, “but it shouldn’t take being a detective to know that information should be kept on the down low.”

Kaito bowed, hand pressed lightly to his chest. “Of course, meitantei, I wouldn’t betray your trust like that, but rather,” his other hand coming up to his mouth in a shushing motion as a devious comeback entered his mind, “I’m more glad to see that you’ve made no objections to me being irresistable.”

As expected, Shinichi’s expression barely wavered, but even in the darkness he could make out the blush that made its way to the detective’s ears.  _ Adorable,  _ Kaito couldn’t help himself from thinking as the other fought to keep his cool and give a dignified response. He did, eventually, manage to do just that, but he was sure that Shinichi knew that Kaito knew that  _ he knew _ that the dynamic was already different. Not that Kaito hadn’t faced off against the other as (kind of) adults before, as he had eventually learned from Akako that it had been Shinichi who had been at the other end of the clock tower heist, but it had been a long while. Even with taking that into account, the atmosphere was just... _ off _ , but he couldn’t put a finger on why. It was almost like the detective was being… weary, distant from him.

The thought sent a pang through Kaito, and he was immediately upset by that notion. He could not have his detective being distant from him, nevermind the fact that he had been shot down to hang out this weekend, he couldn’t have  _ Kid and Shinichi  _ not getting along. He needed at least one of his personas to get along with him, even if it wasn’t actually him that he was getting along with. While both would be preferred, one was better than none. Wait… both? He looked back up at the detective, who didn’t seem to notice anything strange or off as he was saying something about the heist, which he chose to ignore with a smile as he slipped his hand into a secret pocket, quickly typing out a message he had meant to send out earlier.

Shinichi paused mid-speech as the faint sound of vibration was heard. Kaito watched closely as he pulled out the phone, the detective glancing down for only a second before returning the phone to his pocket, a shake in his head before he coughed roughly into his elbow. Okay, not the response he was expecting, but he took it in stride regardless.

“Oh? Who was that? Your girlfriend perhaps?” He teased lightly, letting his voice give off the most carefree attitude he could while maintaining his concentration.

“Don’t have a girlfriend.” Shinichi said, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand, which… actually looked kind of cool from his angle, the moonlight doing it’s job in casting some  _ very _ flattering shadows. Well, not like a phantom thief could be upstaged in coolness factor anyways, but wow, no fair: he probably wasn’t even trying. 

“No? I doubt that, unless...” Kaito tossed his previous thought aside and clapped his hands together, causing Shinichi to flinch. Oops. “it’s actually a boyfriend,” he said, finger pointing at the detective in an accusatory fashion.

“I-” Shinichi barely gets out before Kaito interrupts him, acting hurt.

“Tsk, tsk,” he wags his finger now, turning aside to shrug in disappointment, “and here I thought you told me everything.”

“That’s never been a thing.” the detective’s stern voice and light cough causing him to look over. Kaito swept his eyes over him covertly, looking for some hints: Shinichi did look a bit tired, but the bags under his eyes weren’t too bad. He was gripping his phone a little tighter then usual, though that didn’t mean anything other then a little bit of exasperation. Yeah, it couldn’t hurt to push him a little more before letting the topic drop.

“Sure it has meitantei-kun.” He winks before delivering the final jab, “Just make sure not to let your boyfriend know you went out at night to hang out with another man instead of him, okay~?”

He wishes he could savor the flustered look on Shinichi’s face after that line, maybe even take a picture at how wonderfully the moonlight complimented the blush on his cheeks, but he hears the stomping of several feet coming up the stairwell, shouting accompanying it, and knows his time is coming to a rapid close. What a shame the oil-slicked stairs hadn’t held them back longer. Kaito quickly fishes out the gem and tosses it the detective’s way, not waiting to see if he catches it before turning around and jumping up onto the building’s edge.

“Wait, you can’t just go after saying that.” Shinichi shouts, Kaito turning his head to see that he had crossed some part of the rooftop to approach him.

“What more could you want from me?” He half-jokes, twisting his torso a bit to better watch him get closer. “The stone isn’t what I’m looking for, so I’ve returned it. The only thing more I can possibly think of giving you would be… a kiss?” He laughs, but Shinichi’s frown just gets deeper, the red color on his cheeks growing along with the shouts behind him.

“Stop teasing me!”

He lets his mask slip a bit, the smile he had been suppressing slipping to his features as he leaned down into the detective’s space, nearly whispering his last retort of the night: “Then stop being so amusing.” He boops his nose before winking again, and then jumps backwards off the building, deploying his hang glider at the slightest hint of an updraft and flying to safety. It seems to have been well timed, as he can now clearly hear the shouts of Detective Nakamori and the rest of the Kid Task Force, but he could also, faintly hear, the sound of coughing as well. While that didn’t sit well with him, knowing it was probably Shinichi, he didn’t turn around.

He couldn’t risk capture because of a cold.

After he got back to his house, he quickly debriefed with Jii about how the heist went, what worked and what didn’t, leaving out the part where he semi-flirted with Shinichi. Bidding his assistant good night, he went to bed relatively satisfied with how everything had played out.

Unfortunately, despite his efforts on the rooftop, it didn’t seem to endear Shinichi to either Kid or Kaito. In fact, it almost seemed like he was being avoided in his civilian form, and tolerated in his phantom thief form, which felt like a slap in the face to him.

After thinking about it more, maybe he had embarrassed the detective a little too much as Kaitou Kid, and now he refused to interact with Kaito Kuroba because of the related memories. He hit himself for that, because really, it was a stupid move, and maybe in the back of his head he knew that it was a stupid stunt that he shouldn’t have pulled, but did anyways because he had gotten cocky. Ugh, this was the worst possible way it could’ve blown up in his face though, cause now he just looked like an asshole. An open-minded and accepting one, but an asshole nonetheless, and he didn’t want that to stick. So, he started making conscious efforts to be, as Aoko had put it, not “weird,” and to not “prank him too much.”

It was hard, he had to admit, but it meant a lot to Aoko that he was trying so hard to become Shinichi’s friend, and apparently that news made Ran happy too, which made Aoko even happier because her friend was happy, so then it eventually turned to them encouraging and praising him for his efforts, which actually did feel quite nice. Shinichi hadn’t been able to make any of their other study sessions yet, but apparently Ran did say that he actually  _ was _ quite busy working for the police department, so at the very least Kaito stopped feeling stood up. And since Ran complained about not seeing him as often too, it made his heart feel just a little better because, yeah, maybe he actually just genuinely didn’t have time.

When Kaito lamented about not knowing what Shinichi was interested in because he had gotten so little response from him, Ran giggled a bit mischievously before pulling out a piece of paper and jotting down a quick list of things. “All of his current and long-standing interests,” she said proudly, hands on her hips. “I just know you’ll find a way to use them and finally break down his walls.”

He felt a bit embarrassed by the amount of trust she put in him, but he replied something along the lines of “doing his best,” and they all returned to their homework. 

After doing extensive research on the starred items on the list, namely Sherlock Holmes, (and seriously, how much can one dude write about essentially impossible murders and deductions before his brain just turns into mush,) he ventured into starting up a conversation about the topic. Shinichi acted as expected: with pure suspicion. 

It was like talking to a parent who thought someone was sucking up to their kid to get on their good side, and it was kind of exhausting. This kept going until he finally cracked him by asking about how the party of detectives had been unable to figure out that the body of Mr. Douglas wasn’t  _ actually _ his, but rather the fellow that had tried to kill him instead. “Fingerprinting technology first started in 1892,” he explained over text, “and even though it didn’t become commonplace until a bit later and the Sherlock series is set over the course of the 1870-80s, with his skills of observation, he should’ve been able to notice or even cross-reference the types of fingerprints on each hand with something else, right?”

Shinichi had taken a while to respond, and Kaito was beginning to think he had pushed his luck, when after about two minutes, he had gotten a full paragraph about how, it certainly would’ve been possible, especially given the context and foreshadowing clues leading to believe that the other person had never escaped the room, but that because it wasn’t common practice, it’s possible it either had never occurred to Sherlock to do such a method, or that he simply believed in the witness accounts to confirm his identity since he had not previously been acquainted with him. That only ended up being the introductory paragraph, and he ended up getting at least three more texts about the topic before he apologized for rambling, to which he of course told Shinichi that it was fine, and that he was enjoying himself.

Kaito patted himself on the back for his hard work, and for once was glad that he had binge read novels instead of doing his homework. From there, he had been able to build some sort of relationship with him, talking about books and hobbies, but was still denied the time to hang out with him. Even knowing it was because of his busy side job, it still hurt.

As Kaitou Kid, he was starting to see him grow more tired though, his movements turning sluggish at odd times, his breathing more labored during chases. Even worse, his coughing hadn’t stopped. It was starting to worry him, to the point that he’d slow down, just a bit to not be noticeable, but just enough so that he could catch up properly. He hadn’t been called out on it yet, so either he was doing a good job or Shinichi was being silently grateful for it. Once, Kaito had mistakenly joked about him trying to mimic his trick in procuring a flower after seeing some petals beneath him, but the detective had grown so pale and silent in response that he had backtracked  _ immediately _ by coming up with some other lame excuse. It seemed to put him at ease afterwards, but he just couldn’t forget that feeling.

It caused him to realize that there was something more going on Shinichi’s life, and really, when was there not, but it led him to reach out to Saguru about it, since he was really the only other person he could turn to in helping understand the detective. As much as he had hoped it would help, it ended up being a dead end for the information he was seeking, so he was left back at square one.

Next thing he knew, the end of the month had arrived, and Akako had arrived early as a surprise to them both. And a surprise it was, as neither of them had been expecting it. Aoko had immediately dismissed herself to go back to the dorm to “freshen up,” leaving Kaito to entertain his witch friend.

“So how’ve you been holding up? Hokkaido treating you well?” He tried, venturing once again into conversation.

“It’s cold.” She replied shortly, crossing her arms as she took a look around the college campus. “I much prefer it here in Tokyo, but training guidelines say otherwise.”

“That’s rich coming from someone who always wore crop tops on their days off.”

“It’s my sorceress wardrobe and you know it.” She snapped back, a bit of her warmth coming as she held back a smirk back. “The outfit I wore is indicative of a high ranking of magical understanding.”

“As I’ve been told before, but is that the reason you went to further your training?” He asked, finding himself genuinely curious about the answer.

“Well, no. Not really… actually, partially.” Kaito looked over at that, tilting his head in indication for her to continue. She flipped her long hair over her shoulder, turning away as she spoke once more. “Yes, I was tired of wearing it. You’d mock me till the ends of the earth if I still wore the next time we met, so going up a rank or two would take care of the issue, but also, I’ve realized there’s still a lot of branches of magic that I neglected to go into, so I think it’s about time that I started actually taking my heritage a little more seriously other then trying to seduce all men on earth.”

“Wow.” He managed to say after a while. “You’ve really done some growing up recently haven’t you?” She sent him a glare but he quickly put up his hands in defense. “No, really, I mean it. Actually, I’m kind of glad you came early.”

“Oh? What could I possibly help an elusive phantom thief with?” she asked, interest piqued enough for there to be no bite behind her words.

Kaito could barely get himself to say what he wanted, as he tried to find the best way to approach the topic. Nevermind that he had run several simulations by himself by talking to a mirror, but he hadn’t been prepared for her to come this soon, so he was having trouble finding the right thing to say. Akako lifted an eyebrow at him, and he realized he had to say  _ something _ soon or else the silence would’ve gone on for too long and it would then be too  _ awkward _ to bring it up again. “To be vague, boy problems.” He eventually said, and then immediately regretted as she parroted the phrase. 

“Do you mean about Kudou-kun?” Aoko asked naively. 

He and Akako let out a scream, clinging to each other momentarily in their terror.

“What’ve you been teaching her? She approached way too quietly!” Akako asked, her voice still shaking a bit from the fright.

“Nothing, I swear! This is new for me too.” He insisted, pushing the witch away from him.

Aoko started laughing at them both, clutching at her stomach as she bent over in laughter. Kaito exchanged a look with Akako, and he knew that at the very least he wasn’t the only one with a damaged pride. After recovering, Aoko insisted that they hold their conversation somewhere out of the sun: a place with refreshments emphasized on.

Luckily for him, the conversation didn’t immediately return to the suggested topic after they had sat down, and for a while, he was grateful for that. He let Aoko stumble over some words here and there before smoothly covering it up with a bad pun or other joke, Akako chalking it up to some new wave of humor she had missed out on during training. However, as soon as Akako asked if Aoko was dating anyone, his friend went into a panic, and instead of answering, she deflected back to Kaito’s situation instead.

“Hahah, wait, hold up, we still have to talk about Kudou-kun, right?” She asked, a smile directed towards him in both encouragement and as a plea. “Didn’t you mention something like that right as I got back?”

Kaito wasn’t allowed to confirm or deny this, as Aoko launched into a spiel of advice, friendship tips on how to lure out people who were introverts falling off her tongue like she was reciting it from a pamphlet. Regardless, he nodded his head along to what she was saying, knowing it was a way to get out her jitters. Akako added stuff along the way as she saw fit, drinking from her cup nonchalantly. Most of the witch’s advice sounded suspiciously like romantic advice rather than platonic though, and he didn’t hesitate to call her out on it after the third attempt of essentially suggesting he take him out on a date.

“I want him to like me, not fall in love with me.” Kaito tried to explain, his heart beating a bit faster at the thought in betrayal, though he was sure to keep his mask in place in front of his friends, knowing that they were more astute than they let on most of the time. “So please, stop telling me that I should take him to a nice dinner following a movie when I can’t even get him to hang out with me in person to talk about Sherlock.”

“My, he must really not like you then.” Akako said snidely, barely covering her smirk behind a teacup as she lifted it to take a drink. “I do believe you should work on your friendship first if that’s the case.”

“That’s why I’m asking for help,” he laid his face on the cool surface of the table, exasperated. The sorceress was probably being purposefully dense, but it didn’t keep him from feeling agitated at the act she was pulling with him. “All I want right now is to be able to get him to trust me. The way I’m being treated makes me feel  _ super  _ ignored, and I just want to be able to talk to him casually, ya’ know? I don’t want to rely on the crowds from my magic acts on campus to be able to socialize on the regular.”

“I didn’t know you were feeling so lonely, otherwise I would’ve invited you to some of my sorority’s parties.” Aoko urged, patting his head lightly. Kaito huffed, moving to sit up, only to slouch back into his chair. 

“Would kind of defeat the point. I don’t want to have to lean on you anymore to find friends, it’s not fair to you. Plus, if I can befriend Kudou-kun, then I can befriend anyone.” Kaito looked up as Aoko sniffed, a sleeve going to wipe at her eyes. “Wait, did I say something wrong?”

“No, I’m just…” She threw her arms around him, pulling him into a crushing hug. “I’m just so proud of you!” He tried to assert himself, push her off lightly to get some more space, but he shouldn’t have underestimated Aoko’s strength, as she didn’t budge a bit. Thusly, he gave up and let her do as she wished, her excitement continuing to grow. “You’re really growing up! Chikage-san will be  _ thrilled _ to hear about this in my next video call with her, oh, she’s going to be so happy for you.”

Admiringly, Akako stepped in for him, clearing her throat to gain their attention, stopping Aoko’s frightening train of thought. “As touching as it is to see you two childhood friends being  _ so  _ affectionate, regarding your situation, I do have some legitimate advice for you regarding Kudou-kun.” Kaito looked up from between Aoko’s arms at the sorceress, looking for any trickery. Nothing seemed off, not from what he could see. She seemed pretty sincere about it, but then he saw that sly glint in her eye and gulped. “However, I do require a refill on my drink first, so if you’ll excuse me-”

She went to stand, but Aoko was faster, nearly causing him to fall as she blurted out “Aoko can get it for you.” Everyone halted their actions to just look at each other, each passing second turning Aoko’s face redder from the attention. “Or, not, I mean, I don’t have to if you don’t want me to, it’s just that I wanted to get another drink too, so since I’m going over there anyways I could get yours at the same time… ya’ know?” Akako blinks at her for a beat before sighing and passing over her cup.

“I can tell you guys hang out a lot just from the way you both talk, but yeah, if you want to do that, I’d appreciate it.” The sorceress flashes a smile and Aoko almost melts on the spot. Shaking his head, he ushers her away with a leading hand as she goes over to the juice bar for new beverages.

“I meant what I said.” Akako says, most amusement lost from her voice. “Just last night I had a vision, and knew I had to let you know as soon as I could.”

Kaito narrowed his eyes at her, but she didn’t yield. “You’re not going to give it to me in riddle format again, are you?”

She waved a hand in the air, “Don’t be ridiculous. I did that in high school so that I could mess with you more, I’ll just tell you what I saw, though just know that even I don’t always know what my visions mean.”

“Encouraging. Now lay it on me.”

She nodded, her focus sharpening as she closed her eyes, slowly exhaling through her nose. “I recall a white cape and clover with a red bow tie, presumably you and Kudou-kun. After which I see the red string of fate, entwining two figures, but then there’s tension in the string, four thumbtacks shaping the string into an infinity symbol, which then shifts into an hourglass. The sand slowly runs out from the top of the hourglass, revealing a flower bud. It blooms, coiling into a white chrysanthemum flower. The glass is shattered, and light pours in, the white cape and clover making a reappearance as they flutter past the flower. Between the petals, blood bubbles up, dying the flower red, before it contorts away into nothing.” 

He stayed reticent, thinking there was something more for her to add, but she reopens her eyes and looks to Kaito instead, head tilting. “So, what do you think it means?”

“Me?” He stammered, sitting more upright, “You’re the one who usually has these dreams right? You should have a better understanding of this then I do.”

“Perhaps, but there’s always more than one way to interpret these dreams, so before I tell you what I think, I want to hear what you figured out.” Kaito crossed his arms defensively, but had already relented inside his mind. She hadn’t steered him wrong before, even when she  _ was _ just messing with him, so there was no reason to doubt her now. 

“Fine. I’ll call you about it later then, I want some time to think.”

Akako grinned, her eyes turning to slits in her glee. “I look forward to it.”


	5. Oleander

Haibara clicked her pen irritatedly, eyebrows narrowing at him as he squirmed in his seat.

“While I am displeased to know you hid this from me for so long, I’m glad that this had come to light now, even if I  _ did _ have to force you to.”

Shinichi shifted his eyes away from her gaze, not for the first time that afternoon, wanting to avoid facing more of her wrath. “I wanted to tell you, but I knew you wouldn’t let me go to the Kid heists, so I just… chose not to mention it.”

“You sound like a spoiled child.” Tutted Haibara, an audible squeak letting him know she had turned his back on him. He released a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding as he let himself relax a bit. It could’ve been a lot worse of a scolding, and he knew that there was more to come, but she was more focused on her research and the additional symptoms he had told her about. Sure, the thought of Kid is usually what led him to begin coughing, but he had also begun to experience vivid dreams where he was drowning. Inevitably, he’d wake up coughing from that too, but they never yielded any flower petals to talk of. 

Haibara had immediately took him in for scans to confirm that yes, the plant organism in him  _ had _ gotten bigger. His lack of surprise tipped her off about him knowing something, and it wasn’t long before he was confessing to what he had hidden from her. A lecture had followed, not just from her, but also Agasa, who had come to keep him company as she had set up the machinery. Even now, the professor sat with them, having become privy to the details of what was going on with Shinichi by helping Haibara bounce ideas.

Glancing up, he met the bespeckled man’s stare, and gave him a half-smile. Agasa just shook his head disappointedly, instead opting to look back through Haibara’s notes on the disease she had since dubbed “hanahaki.” Shinichi frowned at that, because while he knew he had made a mistake in not letting them know as soon as he had figured out, he had also been doing his own research into what was going on with him. Ignoring the only lead he had on triggering a reaction would’ve been foolish. As the one foreign phrase went, there was no reward without its risk. Abruptly, the detective was snapped out of his thoughts by a small hand in front of his face, a faint echoing of a greeting reaching his ears late as he tuned back into reality.

“You’re really in no state to be dozing off here, this is vital information if you want to continue to live.” Shinichi wanted to insist that it was no big deal, that he could handle it, just like he had every other time his life had been in danger, but that was a lie, and looking into her eyes made him understand that. This wasn’t a person he could negotiate with or outwit, this was a disease that was actively causing him harm, preventing him from breathing and could end him before he got to unravel its mystery. Any snappy comeback he would’ve usually retorted with died before it left his throat. Swallowing, Shinichi could only bring himself to nod solemnly at what she had said, and in response, Haibara did the same before returning to her seat.

“I’m glad we’ve come to an understanding. Now, you’ve been doing a good job at avoiding this,” she flips a page on her clipboard and leans in to squint, “Kuroba Kaito person, physically, but is there any reason why you would need to continue to do this?”

“I’m… not certain,” Shinichi says, a hand going to his chin in thought. “He hasn’t done anything that seems off from any other college student, but sometimes his mannerisms… they remind me of Kid.” He coughs lightly thinking about their first encounter, and the doubt that he had experienced, but quickly recovered, but out of his peripheral, he sees Haibara clench her hands. Shaking his head, he continues, feeling a very sudden urge to defend Kaito. “I mean, he does claim himself to be Kid’s number one fan, so maybe that’s why, but I’m sure if I explain to him-”

“It’s best you not.” Haibara says tersely, her voice coming out strained. “Bringing him up at all got you to cough, and if the association between the two of them in your mind is so closely connected then I can’t allow you to meet with him on purpose until I have something to combat your hanahaki.”

“But-”

“No, Shinichi.”

Shocked, he and Haibara turned to the professor, whose face was looking abnormally serious. “This is not something you should be arguing with her on. Right now, she is your doctor, with more knowledge on this disease than literally anyone else right now. If she recommends for you to wait to see your friend, then you need to wait.” Speechlessness filled the room, as neither of them could find something to say in response. Unlike usual, Agasa didn’t balk at the encroaching lull in conversation, but rather stayed stead-fast, crossing his arms in emphasis that he wasn’t about to back down from what he had said.

“...thank you…” Haibara finds her voice first, its volume much quieter than before however. The professor nodded resolutely, acknowledging her, before his gaze turned to Shinichi.

“I think you need to apologise to Ai-kun.” Shinichi blinks at Agasa, still reeling from his sternness. After a while longer, he adds a “Please,” the professor's eyes softening with tears as he looks earnestly at him. “I don’t like seeing you kids fight.”

Shinichi nods numbly, turning to Haibara to mumble an apology, his head bowing mostly in shame. She doesn't respond. She doesn’t have to. With that, Agasa stands with a nervous chuckle and announces he’s going to start making lunch for everyone, his usually jolly laugh sounding a bit hollow, but Shinichi smiles regardless at the sound. He nods his head, thanking him in advance for the work, and the professor retreats out of the room.

For a while, neither of them talk. Haibara types away on the computer as Shinichi pulls out his phone to look at the time, seeing when he’d have to leave and if he had any messages. As he begins typing out a reply to one of Heiji’s texts, he wishes that he had scheduled the appointment a couple days from now. He didn’t want the guilt to follow him all of tomorrow since he couldn’t cancel his plans for-

“The heist tomorrow.” Haibara says, barely above a whisper. “I hope you weren’t planning on attending.”

“I have plans with Hattori, actually.” Shinichi easily answers, though he is put on edge by the timing. It’s not a lie, and he knows it, but he still hadn’t answered her question, and he knows that Haibara’s acutely aware of this. She exhales loudly, leaning back into her chair, a hand going to massage her eyelids.

“It goes without saying that your hanahaki is giving you the same symptoms as asthma. So, for your doctor’s orders, I must strongly advise you from engaging in large amounts of physical activity of any sorts without an inhaler present.” She kicks a drawer open with one of her dangling feet, a bang echoing throughout the room. Haibara gestures to the drawer vaguely, not bothering to look. “Take one with you, since I presume you won’t learn your limits ‘till you actually hit them.”

He nodded, replying with an affirmation as he got up from his spot to walk over.

“Make sure you let those around you know about the existence and location of the inhaler in case you can’t personally get to it. Put it somewhere easy to access so that you don’t have to struggle to get it, even if that means you have to start carrying a bag to make it easier, okay?” A pause. Shinichi studies her movements, trying to gain any information from her body language, but she’s still as a statue. “The last thing I need is for you to go dying on me.”

“I wouldn’t do that.’ He says softly, “I didn’t survive everything, didn’t come this far, just to die at the hands of a flower.” Shinichi rose from his spot, pushing up off his knee to right himself. “I’ve got too much to do and live for before this world is rid of me.”

She scoffed lightly, and he felt a smirk work it’s way onto his face.

“I’m sorry you can’t go see your friend.” Haibara says after listening to the clicking of the overhead fan for a little too long. “He seems to be treating you well.”

“He is.” Shinichi agreed wholeheartedly, his smirk turning into something more genuine as he remembered some of their late night text conversations. “I’m sorry I argued with you, I shouldn’t do that as often.”

Another laugh from Haibara as she jumps off her chair to join him standing. “Yeah, you should…” From outside the room, Agasa shouts for them to come to the kitchen since the food was almost ready. Haibara looks up expectantly at him, arms folded in a haughty manner. “Are you staying for lunch?”

“I don’t suppose I could refuse?” He asks in poor humor, and she elbows him in the thigh in response, a small upwards tilt on her lips. “Right, ‘course not. Can’t say no to free food anyways.”

\- < O > -

“Leaving so soon after I’ve arrived?” Akako purred, hand on her hip as she stood in front of him at his airport gate. “A bit rude to keep an out of town guest lonely and without proper accompaniment.”

“You’ll be fine,” Kaito says, a hand waving away her worries. “First, you lived here so it’s not like you don’t know your way around, and second, Aoko will be a fine solitary host, great even! Besides, who am I to get in the way of some quality bonding time between the two of you?”

Akako rolled her eyes at him, making a show of it as she took the seat next to him. “That’s not my point and you know it.”

“Do I?”

She crossed her arms, glowering at him out of the corner of her eyes. “You do. You’re much too smart not to. I’m here to stop you.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time you’re trying to stop me from doing something.” Kaito said, shrugging, not in any way deterred by this information. “And it won’t be the last.”

“I’m here,” she stated, as if it would change his mind, ”so you should stay.”

“It’s not my fault you came early. I’m not gonna change my plans just because you did.”

“I suppose you’re right about that, but even still… I don’t think you should go.”

“Ah,” Kaito exclaimed, pointing a finger at her. “Change of phrase, meaning that it’s not because you don’t want me to leave, but because you saw something! Something other than the vision we discussed the other day, right?” He beamed at her, and he watched her struggle to keep from hitting him, or herself, in irritation. 

“Yes, I had another vision,” she admitted, turning to look him in the eyes, “but the first one still bothers me. The blood came back in the dream I had last night, and as we discussed with my last vision, it  _ definitely _ means that someones gonna get hurt. That person likely being you, or rather, Kid.” Kaito gave her a dubious look and she sighed, annoyed. “I know what I saw last night, and it was telling me to come and give you a final warning, so” Akako did a sad version of jazz hands for emphasis, “here I am.”

“There you are.” Kaito says, laughing as he gestures to her. He shakes his head after she glares at him. “Listen, there’s more reasons to why I  _ should _ go rather than to stay. Kaitou Kid has a reputation, and given I’ve planned this for about a month, I’m not going to let you swoop in last second and prevent me from seeing this through.”

“Don’t make me call Hakuba-kun.” She grumbled, scrunching her eyebrows.

“Hakuba? Ha, there’s no reason to call him. He’s busy doing work things.” He insists. “Besides, he’s in England right now, there’s not much he can do to stop me from there.”

“No, but he can talk some reason into you, which is miraculous within and of itself, and he seems to have a knack for it.”

“I can reason things out just fine.”

“Then why’d you plan this heist?”

“For Pand-” He goes to answer, but then-

“It’s because of Kudou-kun, isn’t it?” she asks. No, more like she knows (he can tell by the glint her eye), but is simply checking in with him for confirmation, and at that Kaito crumbles.

“It’s because of Kudou-kun.” He repeated, defeat in his voice and face in his hands. “I can’t see him unless I’m Kid. It’s the only way.”

“No, it’s not.” Akako says sternly, a sigh escaping as she put a hand to her forehead. “You’re both over complicating  _ and _ over simplifying your situation. This is not a game of cat and mouse that you need to play with the detective, no 4-dimensional chess, you need to be direct and tell him what it is you want. With people who are as dense as he is, especially in budding relationships, you need to verbally communicate. Sure, he’s smart, but he’s also quite stupid, like you.” She pokes a finger into Kaito’s chest, a reflexive “ow” coming from him despite the lack of pain he experienced. “You’re being very stupid right now. You know how to do long arithmetic equations by glancing at the board, and can calculate your trajectory on the fly, and know exactly what tricks will work on what people and where: Kudou-kun can solve difficult cases in thirty minutes with his only lead being a shoestring, he could probably tell you the conversion rate of cyanide in the black market, and fifty ways to kill you and get away with it with only a pen. You’re both incredibly smart, but for some reason you can’t seem to see the people around you as anything other than a potential threat to the mystery.”

She paused, making sure she still had his attention before continuing. “There may be more reasons for you to want to go then stay, but from my perspective it’s the opposite. And if Aoko knew about your alternate identity, she would too.”

Kaito looked away at that, upset that she’d even bring up his childhood friend like that. She was probably right, he probably shouldn’t have planned this heist just so that he’d have a guaranteed chance at seeing Shinichi, but before he knew it, he had thrown himself into working out the plans of another heist, and had even managed to excite Jii with it. Backing out now meant too much for him. Not that he’d be able to articulate all that, because in the back of his mind he still knew the real reason he had decided to do it all. “I just want to be his friend.” He muttered, sulkily, still refusing to look her in the eye.

“I think it’s more than that at this point, but I digress. This is still not the way to do it. It’ll only hurt Kudou-kun more once he figures out you’re Kid, and that you’ve been going against his wishes to not see him regardless. If you hope to be anything more than acquaintances with him by the end of this, then I suggest you stop while you’re ahead.” They stayed like that for a while, no words being spoken between them as the gate agent announcing lazily that the boarding process was about to begin. Kaito readjusted the bag next to him anxiously.

“I understand your concern, but I can’t cancel the heist.” Akako went to speak but Kaito cut her off, determined to not let her get the last word on the situation. “I’ll go out of my way to not engage him, or avoid him, or whatever, but I can’t cancel it. Kid always shows up. Always”

Akako’s gaze bored into him, causing him to grip his bag a little tighter in response. He swallowed. “And what if he corners you and demands an answer?” Kaito looked down to his feet, a shaky laugh coming out instead of an immediate response. Looking back up, he gave his honest answer, the only one he could think of being the right one in such a situation like this:

“I guess I’ll tell him the truth then. He deserves that much, right?”

She frowns, not convinced. “I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do.” She bites on her lower lip, concern clouding her face. He could feel his do the same with her reaction. “The vision, the one that made me come here, it seemed to want to tell me, to tell you, to not reveal the truth. Maybe because it’s up to him to figure it out, or maybe it’ll happen regardless, but once the truth is revealed is when calamity will strike. The world will darken and the stars will plummet, and you’ll be powerless to stop it.”

He smiled, even though he felt disheartened to hear that, even though he could feel the despair in his heart to know that perhaps Shinichi wasn’t supposed to be in his life, but there was no turning back now. He knew that from the time he sent out the heist notice four days prior. The gate agent made their announcement about boarding, and Kaito stood with some other passengers, watching as they walked over to form a line while he stood in his spot, staring dead ahead.

“I’m going to Osaka, Akako.”

“Then I’ll be in contact with Hakuba-kun.” She says in response, casually, as she stands up from her seat. “I won’t make this heist easy for you if you truly insist on going.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” With that, Kaito is able to quickly enter the line and board his plane, leaving Akako by herself in the terminal. She shakes her head, disappointed in the outcome of the situation, but not surprised. She takes out her phone and calls Saguru, who answers after the second ring.

“Good or bad news?” He answers, a slight yawn evident in his voice.

“Depends, how much do you like flying?” Akako asks, and she hears Saguru groan on the other side. 

“So he did it anyway, huh? Even after your warning?”

Akako shrugs to herself, finding her way to the exit as she headed back to Aoko’s place. “He’s just as stubborn as you are, I don’t know how you expected me to best him in an argument.”

Saguru says something unintelligible followed by what sounds like a “should’ve figured,” before his voice returns to being clear. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m getting on a flight now to head over. I should be there before the heist starts, and give him a good run for his money while I’m at it.”

Akako wanted to object, to claim that he never trusted her to convince him after her initial message, but it wouldn’t matter, because he hadn’t been wrong, and she was tired. She couldn’t really fault him for this type of backup plan anyways given they both know how seriously Kaito takes being Kid. “Yeah, good thing.” She responds, finally exiting the airport and squinting into the sun. “I guess you won’t be able to come visit in Tokyo afterwards, will you?”

“Unfortunately not,” Saguru says, the familiar ring of a gate agent’s announcements in the background. “I do have quite a bit of work to get done and barely convinced my family of my return for a weekend.” She giggles at that, remembering her own fight to take her brief vacation in Tokyo. 

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then. It’s out of my hands now.”

“Oh, you’re not going yourself?” he asks, almost as if he had been under the impression that she’d be joining in on the shenanigans.

“Oh no, no, that’s for you boys to handle. I’ve got a cute girl to keep the company of for the weekend, and I feel like that’ll be a much better use of my time then chasing after Kaito on his heists. If he gets into trouble, it’s on him now. I’ve done my part.”

Saguru laughs on the other end, and she felt herself doing the same. “Well, don’t keep your date waiting too long then. I’ll message you whenever I land. Talk to you later.”

Akako repeats the sentiment and then hangs up, putting her phone away carefully. She could feel her migraine coming back, and frowns at that, a hand lifting to her forehead subconsciously. Always a sense of caution and foreboding when she got one, and she felt compelled to try to convince Kaito one more time, but she shook her head. She meant what she had said. It was Kaito’s mess now, no matter the consequences that may come of them. 


	6. Epigaea

Breathing in, Shinichi relaxed under the rays of the warm sun overhead and the sound of the waves crashing into the shore. While he had had to come early to Osaka so that he and Heiji would have enough time to visit the beach beforehand, it was really helping him ease up. He might’ve even been imagining it, but he felt like he could breathe easier to, or maybe it was just the salt tinted winds that just gave him something to taste when he inhaled.

Shinichi had, of course, told Heiji about his hanahaki disease before, but had given him the details of the newest meeting between him and Haibara, minus the fighting, and shown him the location of his inhaler. He hadn’t poked fun at it as Shinichi had expected him to, instead taking in all the information very seriously. Heiji had asked about things like if he had a preferred place to be sent in case it got worse and how he wished to be treated. Shinichi did his best to give him the answers he wanted, because if something  _ did _ happen during the heist, having Heiji there to help him would be incredibly useful.

Part of him had wished that his Osakan friend had joked about it, and poked fun at the fact he had to carry around an inhaler now: it would’ve made Shinichi feel like it wasn’t so serious of a disease for a couple seconds, even if it had been another lie to tell himself to make it easier to bear. However, he hadn’t realized how comforting it felt to have someone so eager to assist him, and yeah, maybe Heiji had always been like that, but it had been during cases, not medical situations, and in a way, his total acceptance of the strange illness made him feel most normal of all. And he was really grateful about that. 

Once he decided to express that (because as Ran had begun to tell him, people aren’t mind readers, and they like to be told what he’s thinking sometimes), Heiji had gotten so flustered and embarrassed by the positive attention that he insisted he take Shinichi to this cool beach house he knew in the prefecture with the promise that it would make him feel better. Not wanting to rain on his parade, Shinichi had accepted. He had woken up early to take the fastest train over, a two and half hour trip, and then hopped in the car with Heiji for another hour to reach the house. It was of impressive quality: the paint looked brand new and the back porch of the house couldn’t have been anymore then twenty meters from the highest tide marker. It kind of reminded him vaguely of Sonoko’s family and he shivered a bit at the thought. He decided against asking if it was a family home or not after that.

After that, they had laid out in the sun and built sand castles and the like, things he hadn’t done since returning to his adult body… and it was nice. He made sure not to run around too much, partially to save his energy but also because the warning from Haibara still rang in his head any time he did something that could leave him out of breath. Thankfully, Heiji kept his mind preoccupied by different activities, even dragging him inside the house to show him old case files and brag about some recent murders he’s solved. 

It had made Shinichi realize just how much he missed hanging out with people, and before he could think about it, he had accidentally said something about wanting to hang out with Kaito too. Heiji paused mid-sentence, giving him a strange look, and then about three seconds later gasped in understanding as he leaned across the table they were sitting at to grab one of Shinichi’s hands.

“Is that the guy you've been talking to? This Kuroba person?” 

“Um, yeah, why?”

Heiji narrowed his eyes, giving him a skeptical look. “You’re not trying to replace me as your best friend are ya’?”

“What?” Shinichi laughed at that, swatting his friend’s hand away comedically. “Of course not Hattori. We’ve been through way too much together, and you’ve had my back since we’ve first met, despite first meeting me as Conan. You’ve always been ridiculously accepting of my circumstances, even now.” Heiji relaxed at that, leaning back into his seat comfortably.

“Good, good. I’m just glad ‘ya got yourself a new pal. Kazuha was telling me that she heard from Ran that she heard from you that you guys were getting pretty close, and of course Kazuha  _ might’ve _ insinuated that I was getting replaced, and I couldn’t let that happen, not on my watch anyways, so I thought invitin’ ‘ya over to attend the Kid heist that was being planned in Osaka was the perfect way to solidify my spot as number 1. Pretty good, eh?” The detective across from him looked awfully smug about the… frankly childish plan, but he couldn’t deny that it had delighted him to get the invitation, so Shinichi thought it best to ignore the obvious flaws in his plan for now.

“Well, I couldn’t pass up a chance to show-up my rival in person now could I?” He snickered at Heiji’s scowl, waving him off. “Kidding, kidding. Heists operate a little differently: it’s mostly a game of pursue and outwit, quite the different change of pace then a murder investigation. There’s only one objective, retrieve back the stolen item. If that’s done, everyone wins.”

“I see,” The other said, a hand to his chin thoughtfully as he nodded. “That is a lot different then what I usually do, but where’s the fun if there’s no challenge, either way,” He paused to smirk to himself, making eye contact with Shinichi in a way that indicated he had figured something out, “I bet your Kuroba Kaito couldn’t do anything like keep up with that sort of scene, can he?”

Shinichi rolled his eyes. Back to this topic again, were they? “Actually,” he found himself saying, feeling this urge to defend him again rise up in his chest, “He’s worked with Nakamori-keibu, the lead detective on the Kid Task Force, as an assistant in understanding Kid’s more basic magic tricks and how to escape them.” Heiji’s jaw seemed to drop at that, and Shinichi felt this strange sensation of… pride? How strange. “He’s a magician.” He shrugged instead, deflecting himself to another topic, “Guess it runs in the family, since his dad was one too.”

Heiji’s eyebrow quirked at that. “Like Kuroba Toichi?”

“Exactly like Kuroba Toichi.” 

“Damn… He was legendary.”

“From what I hear.”

“Think there’s any possibility…” 

Shinichi coughed, his throat itching at the strange cliff hanger. “Possibility of what?”

“Well, ya’ know.” Heiji shrugged his shoulders, putting a hand to his neck, “That he could be Kid?”

“Of course not,” He insisted, and immediately started coughing. Shinichi fought through it though, continuing to talk as he watched his friend’s eyes widen. “There’s no way Kid,” cough, “could work and live so close to the detective,” cough, “and not get found out.”

“Yo, ‘ya doin’ alright there? Do I need to get your inhaler?” 

“Nope.” Another cough. “I’m good for now.”

“Right, well, if things start gettin’ worse, I’ll be sending ‘ya back to the little scientist miss.”

“I’d expect nothing less of my rival and best friend.”

“Now you’re just sayin’ that to suck up to me.” Heiji said, despite the grin on his face. “That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for us talkin’ about your crush though.”

“Crush?” The detective gives him a look, and then it dawned on Shinichi who he was talking about. “Kuroba-kun? No. Stop. That’s ridiculous, I don’t have a crush on him.” He coughed lightly, remembering the time he had first seen him in the café and mistaken him for Kid. 

“He makes ‘ya smile though, like genuinely. Can’t tell me that ‘ya haven’t noticed?” 

“He’s an entertainer,” he deflected, recalling times he had watched Kaito perform on campus from afar, adamant to not get too close. His doves would land on his outstretched arms afterwards when he bowed, reminding him of how Kid would bow to his audiences during heists. He coughed again. “It’s his job to make people smile. If he couldn’t do that, he’d be a pretty poor magician.”

“Yeah, and you pick apart magician’s for their tricks, but you haven’t criticized this Kuroba guy even once. Is he so amazing that he’s stolen your heart?”

At that, the coughing fit came back stronger, and Heiji didn’t ask this time, but rather went straight to his bag and brought back the inhaler. Shinichi shook his head, coughing a bit harder to get the thing in his throat dislodged. A couple seconds later and he had a white flower bud in his hand along with a couple of individual petals... some dyed red. He shut his eyes, hoping that it was just a little bit of oxygen deprivation and that he hadn’t just seen blood. Five seconds counted, and then he opened them again, and, yeah, it was blood. He looked over at Heiji, who looked at him with shock.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, haven’t coughed up a whole one before.” He tried, and failed, to joke. He grabbed the inhaler for good measure to take a few good breaths.

“Does the little scientist friend of yours know?”

“Yeah,” he put the inhaler down, nodding his head in thanks, “but it was to be expected. Haibara figured that at some point the force of a cough might detach parts of the plant. The worrying part is the blood…” He looked back down into his palm, seeing the blood tinting his hand red as it sat there. “That’s uh, that’s definitely new.”

Heiji looked at him, his eyes hard as he assessed him. His mouth tilted down. “Guess I can’t convince ‘ya not to go to the heist, can I?”

“You’d be right.” Shinichi confirmed, standing to throw away the bud and wash his hands. “Besides, this probably just means I finally cleared out what was blocking my airways. I’m sure I’ll be fine at the heist.”

Heiji rolled his eyes. “Well, I’ll trust you, for now. You seem to have a grasp on what not to do to push yourself, and I’m gonna trust that ‘ya make the right decision when the time comes.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I do have one more thought to share with ‘ya before we head back to the heist location though.”

“About my hanahaki?”

“Yeah… ‘ya think maybe it’s psychological?” Shinichi parroted the phrase back slowly, confused. Obviously it was physical, there was a flower in his lungs. How could it be- “I mean, you’ve only really coughed when you talk about Kuroba Kaito, and I think it might be because you're in denial about your feelings for him.” 

“I-” Shinichi thought about it a bit more, and tried to think back on all the other times he had coughed over the past month. Heiji… wasn’t wrong. It was definitely psychological. How had he or Haibara not thought of this? His friend seemed to notice the shift in thinking cause he made a noise similar to a chortle.

“If it’s based off repressed emotions, then it might just be something that you have to go through, and ya’ know, sit down and figure out. In a way that  _ won’t _ get you to cough up a lung and a half of course, and hey, I can help you out too.” He patted his shoulder reassuringly, giving him a wink. “Don’t forget, I’m not just your best friend in name, but in actuality too.” Heiji puffed out his chest at that, and Shinichi felt very grateful once again to have Heiji helping him with both venting and distracting. 

“Yeah, of course. I’ll let you know if I ever think about it,  _ after  _ this heist of course.”

“Of course!” Heiji laughs, pulling him up out of his seat. “Now let’s get goin’. Don’t wanna be late to our date with Kid.” Shinichi suppressed the urge to cough at that statement, opting to text Haibara quickly about the possibility of the hanahaki being psychological as well, per Heiji’s suggestion. This was going to be a long day, and somewhere in the back of his mind, his brain was letting him know that a disaster was imminent, but he ignored that as well. Inhaling one last breath of the beach air, he entered the car, mentally preparing himself as they headed back towards the city center. 

\- < O > -

Ever since he got to the heist site, he could feel something was off. By now, Heiji had told everyone on the Kid Task Force that he wasn’t feeling his A-game, and the team seemed to be both pitying him and excited by the prospect that Shinichi might not be upstaging them so easily this time.

Things like “Don’t worry about it kiddo, leave it to the professionals,” and “Just take care of yourself, we’ve got this under control.” He didn’t have the heart to verbally doubt them at this point, and could only find it in himself to encourage them. He did later find time to scold Heiji for letting them know, but he just said it was “for a good cause,” and Shinichi was too tired to argue with him about.

By the time Hakuba Saguru had arrived, he welcomed him wholeheartedly. Saguru seemed to be able to tell something was off, and Shinichi was beginning to think he should ask Kid on tips for maintaining a good poker face.

“Is everything alright Kudou-kun?”

“Not really, but that can be discussed later. I’ve been assigned to give you a rundown of the heist counter-plan.”

“I see.” Saguru took a look around the room, spotting Heiji across the room. “I guess Hattori-kun came with you?”

“He did, in fact, it was due to his invitation I was able to make it out here.”

“Ah, well I am here for… other reasons, but I assure you nonetheless that I am here for everyone’s safety, including yours.”

“Already heard that I’m sick, huh?” Shinichi said morosely, however, Saguru looked a bit confused at that, but recovered quickly enough to where he didn’t feel like he should question it. The man  _ had _ just come off a thirteen hour flight after all.

“Yes, and I’m going to make sure it doesn’t get… worse. Now, about the heist plans? Are they the usual ridiculousness that the task squad comes up with?”

Shinichi laughed at that, showing Saguru into the adjacent corridor. “Of course they are.”

“Wonderful.”

He showed the other detective around, pointing as subtly as he could to the contraptions the police had set up before Heiji eventually went around accompanying him, warning the two that the time was closing in on the start of the heist. So while they counted down the time for Kaitou Kid’s arrival, they talked about some recent cases of theirs. Saguru had been surprised to hear that Shinichi hadn’t taken a lot of recent cases.

“Pardon me if I’m overstepping my bounds here,” Saguru started, looking over at Shinichi a bit concerned, “but is this related to the illness you spoke of earlier?”

“Kind of,” Shinichi wasn’t sure what to tell Saguru, given he had only ever really talked about it to Heiji and Haibara. He settled for an “It’s complicated,” and got an understanding nod in response.

“Of course. I simply thought that there might be some way that I may be able to assist you if I knew what it was that was afflicting you, but I know that we are not as close and I’ve no right to know such things without your permission.”

“Yo, lighten up man.” Heiji said, patting him cheerfully on the shoulder, “We’re all friends here, but,” and he gave a quick wink to Shinichi before turning back to Saguru, grinning widely, “while you're here, how much do you know about flowers?”

“Flowers? Like the language of flowers?”

“Yes?” Shinichi said cautiously, vaguely recalling such a thing.

“Well, it’s not so common a theme here in Japan, but in London it sometimes pops up during cases, so I’ve made sure to memorize a list of flowers and their meanings. Though, I don’t suppose you’d be asking me this if you didn’t have a flower in mind?”

Shinichi and Heiji paused, exchanging glances with each other as Saguru just watched them. 

“Do you really think this will help?” Heiji half whispered, leaning down a bit out of habit of having to talk to Conan.

“We don’t know if we don’t try.” Shinichi shrugged, “You said it was psychological, right? So what if it’s a subconscious thing.”

“Like a signal to yourself?” Small pause. “You might be onto something.” They turned back to Saguru in unison, to be greeted by an unsettled face. 

“How about Chrysanthemums?” Heiji suggested.

“What color?” the English detective asked, head tilting, though he seemed to have expected the answer. He tried not to think on it too much. “Depending on the color, it could change the meaning slightly.”

“They’re white right?” Heiji asked Shinichi, to which he nodded his affirmation. Saguru doesn’t say anything immediately, a suspicious eye going between the two before he decides to say something.

“That’s simple then. It’s one of my favorite meanings for a flower: White chrysanthemums stand for truth.” He and Heiji made understanding noises, but Shinichi still felt like he was missing something. Sure, the meaning of ‘truth’ could definitely be a hint for what he was  _ supposed _ to look into, but something told him that he needed to ask about the other colors… namely red. He swallowed nervously, before asking. “The others?” Saguru closed his eyes, head tilting back a bit as thought. “In general, they usually mean things like rest and cheerfulness, but there are only a few color specific ones. White is ‘truth’, as I’ve told you, yellow is ‘slighted love,’ and red…”

Shinichi’s ears seemed to lag or just refused to let him process Saguru’s words as the lights went out almost immediately after his answer. As the young detectives looked up simultaneously at a spotlight shooting down from the ceiling, revealing Kaitou Kid standing on a display case in the middle of the room, monocle glinting as mischievous and gleeful eyes fixed themselves onto Shinichi, the words finally reached him.

“...red means ‘I love you.’”


	7. Chrysanthemums

Shinichi didn’t have much time to think, let alone hold himself back from chasing the thief after the heist started. A couple of confetti explosions and a cascade of soapy water later left many of the officers covered in glitter and the like, but also unable to move properly across the tiled floor. Kid had taunted them after this, as per usual, and showed them, quite brazenly, the stolen gem.

“I’ll be taking custody of the Core of Twilight now, if you gentlemen don’t mind.” The phantom thief announced, with a slight tilt of his hat towards the three of them. ‘Don’t worry, I promise to take good care of it.”

“Like hell we’ll just let ‘ya take it!” Heiji yelled, having gotten amped up by the energy the task force had brought forth just a little bit earlier. Said team cheered for him as he made a running dash for the thief, Saguru a little too late in stopping him. 

“I see you’ve brought in all the big guns to deal with me today, meitantei. I feel quite flattered by all this attention you know, one might begin to think you liked me.” Kid said smoothly, voice not fluctuating in the least as he dodged Heiji’s rash movements. The thief’s eyes barely moved as they slid over to the detective standing next to him, Saguru. “Even my beloved English detective has made an appearance? My, I really feel quite pampered today, but unfortunately, I made a promise that I’d try to make this as quick as possible, so I really must be making my exit now.”

Heiji goes for a grapple while Shinichi and Saguru split ways to the two different exits, determined to either cut him off or be able to pursue him that much faster. The inevitable smoke bomb goes off, but not just around Kid, but around the entire room, clouding their visions. Desperate for air, and still slipping everywhere, the task force rushes for the doors and the detectives have no choice but to let them through or be smothered with soapy confetti as well. 

Right after he had left the doorway, Shinichi flinches, feeling Kid’s presence nearby, and goes to chase it on a whim. He barely hears Heiji and Saguru’s calls after him, focusing in only on where the feeling had come from, winding down hallways and corridors like he had done earlier, until he saw a lone task force member sitting in the middle of a nice lounge in a far too relaxed position. 

“Well that didn’t take very long.” The officer said, rising from his position. “I was really hoping that you wouldn’t come chasing after me, just this one time.”

He gritted his teeth. “Then why were you sitting here, Kid?”

The officer grinned, bowing his head slightly in recognition of his alter ego’s name. “Just a slim hope of mine I suppose, but I should’ve known that you’d never disappoint me, meitantei _. _ ” He looked up, making eye contact with Shinichi, and a shiver ran down his spine at how he could actually  _ see _ emotion in his gaze for once, and not the typical poker face. It was… sad. “You never have.” 

Shinichi wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn’t figure out what it was that made him feel so helpless about the situation. Kid had shown him this emotion on purpose, but why? There should be no reason to show him something like that unless he was trying to use it against him, and yet, Kid stood motionless where he was, no indication that he was going to turn and bolt out of the room in some dramatic chase. 

Maybe this had to do with the chrysanthemums… What truth was there to uncover from Kid though? His eight year time gap in thieving? That’s not something that could make him ill, was it? Shinichi shook his head, eyes trained on the ground near Kid’s feet so he knew when he was going to leave. He had to focus, this was important. It couldn’t be what Kid was searching for, because Kid himself had at some point told him vaguely what it was about, but he knew it wasn’t that. He knew because he already had the answer to what truth his flower wanted him to investigate, one he had never been able to bring himself to look into, that for one reason or another, he had put off for years. Moving his gaze from the floor back to the phantom thief’s face, he steeled himself for the question, coughing slightly into his hand. An indication that he was on the right track.

“Who are you?”

Kid tilted his head in confusion, finger tapping his chin, once, twice. Poof, he was back in his regular white tuxedo and cape outfit, his arms spread wide as two doves came flying out from behind him. “Why, I'm the internationally wanted phantom thief Kid of course!” He laughed, poker face back in place. “What a silly question to ask meitantei.”

“Not what I meant Kid. Who are you really? In everyday life, what name do you go by?”

Kid’s face went neutral at that, a hint of the sadness from earlier returning. A dove landed on his shoulder, cooing obliviously. “You know I can’t answer that.”

“I need to know.”

The phantom thief shook his head, taking a step towards a side room, an exit. “It’s better if you don’t.”

Shinichi moved with him, cutting the other’s motions short. “Anything, a hint.” He moved closer to the thief, slowly as if to not to spook a wild animal. “Please?”

The other sighed, looking to the side as if studying one of the paintings on the wall. “You already know who I am, but whether or not you wanted to put the pieces together is up to you.” He mumbled, the words barely reaching the detective. He coughed. What is that supposed to mean?

Just then, Heiji and Saguru burst into the room, the blonde detective striding directly over to Kid. “You didn’t say anything, right?”

Kid raised his hands in defense, backing up quickly. “Say what my dear dete-” 

“Drop the act Kaito Kid, you need to get out, and now.”

“You didn’t lead the task force to me did you? I really wanted to see if they could solve my puzzle you know.” Kid whined, his doves making noises that sounded oddly like they were agreeing with him.

“Puzzle? What puzzle?” Shinichi asks, looking over to Heiji for an answer.

“Yeah, after he disappeared and the room cleared of smoke, there was this huge contraption with coordinates and a slide puzzle where they had to put together the map of the building we’re in. Hakuba-kun and I of course figured it out before the police that stayed behind could even get halfway through it, so we came straight to the spot it mentioned and found you here with Kid. But Kudou, if you didn’t see the puzzle, how’d you find him?”

Shinichi shrugged, looking back over to where Saguru and Kid seemed to be arguing in half-shouts and half-whispers. “I’ve always been able to sense his presence, but usually only whenever he lets me, but I think this time I found him naturally.”

“Weird,” Heiji grunted. “Though not as weird as those two, do you think they know each other?”

“Of course we don’t!” Kid and Saguru yelled at the same time, catching him and Heiji off guard, though it didn’t seem to affect them as they immediately turned back to their heated conversation.

“Know each other, huh?” Shinichi murmured to himself. “Kid said something like that earlier.”

Heiji turned his way, questions basically radiating off of him. “Whad’ya say Kudou? ‘Ya say ‘ya know the dude? Like, in real life?”

Saguru glanced over at that, and Heiji covered his mouth. The blonde looked back over to Kid, who was already backing away a bit. “Now I never said anything like that.”

“Heed Akako’s warning and leave.” Saguru pointed a finger outside the nearest window, but the thief didn’t respond to that.

“Wow, so she really did message you to come, and here I thought you came just to see me.” 

“She told me all I needed to know to keep you out of trouble, and the longer you stay here, the more trouble you are to Kudou-kun.”

“Me?” Shinichi asked, and Saguru cursed under his breath in English. 

“Not you in specific Kudou-kun, I meant everyone here in general, but seeing as you two usually square off, your name was the first to pop up. My apologies for the confusion.” He grabbed Kid’s wrist and started dragging him away, “Now you’ve  _ really  _ got to go.”

“Wait, what about the Core of Twilight?” Heiji asked, moving past him, and Shinichi almost fell over. He was starting to feel dizzy. “Yo, my bad Kudou, you alright?” He couldn’t even get himself to shake his head, instead sinking into the nearest armchair. “Hey, Kudou? What’s up man, ‘ya need me to get your inhaler?”

“Inhaler?” Saguru and Kid echoed, but Heiji ignored them, bending down next to him. Shinichi weakly nodded his head, and the Osakan was gone the next second. 

His thoughts were spiraling as he started making more and more connections, but his brain was blocking him off from the answer it was forming so he started going through it point by point in his head. Kid said he already knew who he was, but that could also be a bluff, but the way Saguru was acting with Kid, the fact that they knew someone mutually, the fact that they had both vehemently denied knowing each other. It meant something. Shinichi finally registered that he was coughing, and that both Kid and Saguru were kind of hovering over him, unsure of what to do. They were saying words, but he wasn’t able to hear them. He was getting distracted, he curled in more on himself to refocus. The reason that the flower was a chrysanthemum, that Saguru was the one to be able to tell him what it meant, the fact that Heiji had said that it was psychological, that he might be coughing due to a suppression of feelings for…

Shinichi strained to look up, to see the face of Kid, to ground himself, or maybe to throw his suspicion to the winds. But he didn’t see Kid, all he could see was Kaito’s face, filled with anxiousness. The very face of worry he remembered seeing back at the café a month ago after his first coughing fit when he had mistaken him for Kid. He gasped to himself.  _ Oh. _

His coughing got worse after that, a hand going to his throat as if it could stop what was happening. However, it failed to do anything, Heiji arriving just in time to see him cough up the first flower: a fully bloomed chrysanthemum. He barely had time to register it in his hand, covered in blood, before his coughing fit continued, all of the eyes around him widening in fear, Saguru covering his mouth in shock. 

“Akako’s vision wasn’t about me,’ Kid said, reaching out to touch Shinichi’s hair, a movement he could barely see in his tear blurred vision, before retracting it, “It was about the meitantei.”

He didn’t know what that meant, or how many more flowers he’s coughed up, but he could feel the lack of oxygen starting to get to him. His vision was slowly starting to turn black, and he reached out for someone, something, anything. A hand grabbed his, and he gripped it as hard as he could to keep himself present, but the last thing he heard was Heiji telling him that he’d get him back to Agasa’s place before he passed out.

\- < O > -

“What’d ‘ya do that for?” Heiji yelled at Saguru, the blonde detective rolling his eyes.

“From what I gather, this coughing up flowers thing was akin to a panic attack, meaning it’s psychological, which means that so long as he’s awake he’s going to continue to show symptoms, which means that knocking him out is the best way to stop it. And look,” Saguru said, gesturing to the now sleeping Shinichi, “he’s stopped.”

“I mean, it might’ve been a little harsh.” Kaito found himself interjecting before Heiji could.

“Harsher than letting him lose his own air supply before trying to resuscitate him afterwards? I find that much crueler.” Saguru said, chin raised. “Either way, now that we’ve got him to stop, what next? Hattori-kun, you said something about taking him to a doctor who is presumably aware of this condition.”

Heiji nodded, swallowing. “Yeah, but they’re back in Tokyo. Gettin’ him out of here and back without causing too much of a commotion will take at least two and half hours.” Saguru clicked his tongue, frustrated. “In any case, is it safe to move him right now?”

As they talked among themselves, Kaito couldn't help but look at the unconscious Shinichi, who’s hand was still holding onto his own. The chrysanthemums, dyed red by his blood, rested against his chest and in his lap, and he could feel his heart squeeze in both affection and anguish. His gloves were getting stained by the blood now, but that didn’t bother him in the least as he wiped away some of the blood around his mouth with a thumb. He couldn’t leave him like this, not now that he knew what Akako’s vision meant. 

“I’ll take him,” He said quietly, moving to lift Shinichi off the seat he had fallen into.

“You can’t be serious,” Saguru sounded exasperated. “You won’t be able to get to Tokyo faster than a bullet train, don’t be ridiculous.”

“I never come to heists alone, you should know that.” Kaito smiled weakly at him, and Saguru’s face looked so taken aback that he decided to turn his attention to the Osakan next to him as he hefted Shinichi’s body into an easier position to carry. “What’s the address of this doctor? I can get him there in an hour.”

“Kudou really wasn’t kiddin’ when he said ‘ya guys looked out for each other.” Heiji murmured instead, earning a hit on his arms from the blonde. “Okay, I get it, uh, here’s the address,” He said, pulling out a little notebook and writing it down before tearing out the page, “‘Ya gotta promise me though that you’re not up to any funny business.”

“I promise I’m not.” Kaito said solemnly, bowing his head the best he could. “I just want him to be safe.”

“That goes for me too buddy.’ He hands over the paper, grumbling a bit afterwards. “I better get an explanation after all this.”

Kaito laughs, “I think we’d all like one, but we’ll have to wait till he wakes back up to tell us that.” He grabs an ear mic from out of one of his many pockets, and puts in, tapping it lightly to open the channel between him and Jii. “We’ve got an SOS here, the meitantei needs a trip back to Tokyo ASAP.” Jii makes a startled sound on the other side, but says he’s on his way. Nodding, he looks back at the other two detectives. 

“Now, I’d quite appreciate it if you two helped me deceive my task force. Just this once, here.” He throws the large amethyst at Heiji, who barely catches it. “You can even have this back since it’s not the one I’m looking for anyways, so you’re both free to take it back to the police, but in return, keep the officers away from the rooftop.”

Saguru sighs, running a hand through his hair before nodding resolutely. “Right, I’ll call them away from there and say I’ve spotted you elsewhere.”

“Thank you.” Kaito says in response, but Saguru waves him off.

“Tell me that when your detective is safe.”

“Whoa,” Heiji interrupts, looking between them, “I can’t just,” he looked down and Shinichi and then back at him and then makes another strangled noise. “How is that ‘ya get everyone on your side Kid? This must be the real reason you’ve avoided capture all these years.” He points at him, face determined. “I won’t go easy on ‘ya next time.”

Kaito grins, accepting it as compliance to the plan. “That’s what they all say. Well,” he bows slightly again, “I’ll be in contact with you both soon.” He throws down a smoke bomb, careful not to jostle Shinichi too much as he dashes out of the room and into a trap door in a corner he had prepared earlier. Sealing it carefully behind him, he made his way up to the rooftop where his hang glider was hidden, and waited till he heard that everyone had evacuated before leaving his hiding spot. 

Once attached properly, he picked up Shinichi’s body in his arms and jumped off the building, keeping him close to his chest. Gliding towards the landing area in a nearby private airfield. From there, he quickly transferred the detective into the back of the helicopter, hooking him up to IVs kept there in case of emergencies and asked Jii if he knew the location on the piece of paper. Kaito was confused when Jii responded, almost excited, about Kaito knowing a Professor Agasa, and “why hadn’t you told me? I’ll get us there immediately.” He didn’t bother to ask many questions then, just letting Jii do his job as he stayed with Shinichi in the back.

Oh, he had messed up, and he had messed up big, but there was nothing he could do at this point. If there was anything he had learned from Akako’s visions, it was that regardless of what he tried to do, they’d come true one way or another, so that he’d might as well learn to embrace them.

He texted Saguru that they were on their way to Tokyo and got left on read for a while, before he was sent a thumbs up. Kaito then rifled through Shinichi’s pockets and found his phone to text Heiji and the professor, and got responses from both within the minute. Lastly, he messaged Akako and tried to give her the short version of what happened. His phone vibrated a bit afterwards, letting him know she had responded, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it.

Once they got to Professor Agasa’s house, Shinichi was quickly shuttled inside by him and Jii, the professor opening the door for them and a little girl showing the way into a well lit lab area. From there, the girl introduced herself, before succinctly asking for the details about the night's events as she connected the detective to multiple machines, and he did the best he could to recount the details of what had happened. After taking a couple scans and running a “few” preliminary tests, though there seemed to be an awful lot of them, she eventually took the time to look at him properly, though from his angle it looked more judjy then inquisitive.

“You’re Kaitou Kid… aren’t you?”

“That obvious am I?” Kaito asked, pulling his cap a bit lower.

Haibara shook her head, motioning to the two men talking animatedly outside the lab, chatting like old buddies, “As much as I’d like to say I figured it out on my own, Agasa and your friend haven’t stopped talking about new inventions they could use during heists and if things are prepared for the next one and so forth. It’s a pretty good indicator if you ask me.”

“Right, well that explains how Jii-san knew about this place.” Kaito sighed, silence stretching between them as they listened in to Agasa and Jii. After a while of this, he thought that he should say something, if not to at least figure out what was going on. “I know this might be sensitive, but can I ask what’s going on with Shinichi?”

“First name basis, are we?”

“That’s not important right now. This coughing has been going on for at least a month, and I want to know why it is that he started coughing up flowers. Does…” Kaito lowered his head, unable to look her in the eyes when he asked her, his voice dropping into a whisper “...does it have something to do with me?”

He hears the girl exhale irritatedly. “That’s yet to be seen, if the last message I got by him is of any indication.” Kaito raised his head at that, and the girl had a folder held out to him. “Believe it or not, he made me prepare a folder if you ever ended up carrying him home from a heist all banged up, just didn’t think it’d be for this.” Kaito took the folder in his hands, opening the file gently. Inside, a photo of Shinichi’s face smiled back up at him. He stroked the photo absent-mindedly. “Alright,” Haibara cleared her throat, gaining his attention as she turned on a monitor behind her, “Let’s go over what we know so far about his hanahaki, and then we’ll go from there.” Kaito nodded, gripping the folder tighter.

About an hour later, and not only had he learned all about hanahaki and its multiple offshoot theories, some of which had been discarded since tonight's incident with many still remaining plausible however, but also both Saguru and Heiji had ended up coming as well.

“I had not planned on returning to Tokyo while I was here, but I felt I had valuable information for the young miss.” Saguru had stated plainly, having handed over handwritten notes upon his arrival. Haibara thanked him, obviously flattered and pleased, but it was uncertain if it was because of the compliment, because he had written down his notes, or something else entirely.

“I needed to make sure ‘ya kept up on your promise Kid.” Heiji said, using a gesture that suggested he’d be watching him, causing Kaito to suppress every urge in his body to not antagonize him back. “Has he woken up yet?”

Haibara shook her head, leading the two of them into the backroom of the lab to show them Shinichi, leaving Kaito alone in the living room with Agasa, as Jii had decided to head home for the night before anyone else had gotten there.

“You’re Toichi’s boy, right?”

Kaito looked up at the professor, who was holding out a cup of tea. He bobbed his head, accepting the drink and holding it in his hands for it’s warmth. 

“You sure look like him, that’s for sure. Never knew you and yours were on the other end of where all my inventions and gadgets were going, but it makes me happy to know they’ve been in good hands.”

“Bit of a broad definition on good hands you got there,” he chuckled, the professor joining him, 

“Can’t say much for when I gave my gadgets to Shinichi when he turned into Conan. He probably did more breaking and entering  _ after _ I gave him the tools then beforehand, but all’s well that ends well as I say.” 

Kaito agreed, but couldn’t fight the nagging feeling in the back of his head. He wanted to feel comfortable here, he had been welcomed warm enough by the inhabitants after the initial shock of bringing in an unconscious Shinichi, but he just couldn’t settle down. After a bit longer of some small talk, he sat down his mug on the coffee table.

“Is something the matter Kaito-kun?” Agasa asked, worry plain on his face. Ah, how nice, that he didn’t have to try and decipher the professor’s emotions. He gulped, knowing that despite that, it wouldn’t make asking his question any easier.

“Don’t you blame me? For everything that’s happened, for not being able to keep him safe, for,” he spread his arms, waving them around a bit, “all of this?” Kaito looked at the professor for an answer, but he only earned a blink in response. And then the professor was laughing, big and jolly as if he had just told  _ the _ funniest joke in his arsenal. Kaito couldn’t help but feel a whole different kind of confused. He certainly wasn’t used to… whatever this reaction was.

“Of course not!” He eventually exclaimed, clapping him on the back so hard he almost fell off the couch. “Ai-kun warned him plenty before he went off to the heist, so if he disobeyed her then he’s got his own hell coming for him when he awakes.” Agasa laughs again at himself, taking a sip of his own tea before adding on. “Besides, it’s not like you knew why you were being avoided, it’s only natural to want to see the one you love.” 

Kaito felt his face flush warm with that, his stammering coming out without thought, “I don’t recall—why, I-I’ve  _ never _ said that—I am most  _ certain  _ I didn’t.”

The professor chuckled again, and oh no, this was really humiliating. Even if he hadn’t said it before, it was obvious now, and he didn’t dare risk looking up and seeing the pity in his eyes after that pathetic recovery. This is what happens when he let his guard down. He cursed at himself internally. Kaito felt another pat on his back, and wasn’t surprised to see Agasa giving him a warm smile, but with no pity to be seen behind his spectacles as he looked at him with fondness. “It’s alright boy, you weren’t the only one.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved being able to write all the boys in the same scene, they're all so distinct personality wise and really are just so fun to write when they're all in the same room. ((also there's saguai/hakubara if you really squint, a thing that I have only...recently been interested in, though I didn't really get to write it lol))


	8. Phlox

“Thank you for your… expertise Koizumi-san, it certainly helped us along.”

“Of course Ai-chan, just let me know if anything else comes up.” Akako and Haibara shook hands, parting ways at the lab door. The sorceress turned to Kaito, who was just barely awake still, sitting in a stiff chair. “And how much longer do you plan to stay here?”

“Until he wakes up… I guess.” The thief shrugged, rubbing his eyes as he yawned.

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he won’t be for a bit.” Kaito’s stomach dropped at that. No. There’s no way that he was in a coma… right? “Relax,” Akako leaned over, flicking him in the forehead, reading his mind perfectly from just his lack of response. “It’s medically induced so that he can get proper rest. If we let him wake up now, he’ll just go running off and doing something else stupid or dangerous, so for now, he stays here. Plus, it let’s Ai-chan monitor his condition better.”

Kaito sat up more, mulling over what she said for a bit. “About that... did you manage to fix it at all?”

“Partially,” Akako leaned against the wall next to him, biting her thumb nail. “The roots had managed to grow pretty far into his lungs, so I didn’t want to make a mistake and make it worse, so I worked on small portions at a time.”

“But you must’ve figured something out, right? Or Haibara wouldn’t have shaken your hand.” He pointed out, both eager and nervous to hear more about what had happened over the past four hours.

“True, and I did, but you’d think I was joking if I told you what magic worked best against it.” Kaito tilted his head, a signal for her to keep talking. She giggled, a hand over her mouth. “Love magic! Can you believe it?” She threw up her hands, humor evident in her voice. “I was trying so many different kinds of medicinal magics, and even some of the new ones that I’ve learned while in training, but this disease reacted to the very thing I prided myself on back in high school! Once I figured that out, I was able to- Kuroba-kun, are you alright?”

Kaito’s face was warm with blush again, and all because of what Agasa had told him earlier in the living room. He wasn’t the only one to… what? Have a crush? He shook his head, both to clear his thoughts and respond to Akako. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just a bit tired is all, it’s been a long couple of days.”

She looked him up and down, analyzing him, before clicking her tongue angrily. “Just go home Kuroba-kun. You’re a mess, and like I said, he’s not waking up anytime soon, so go home and rest. Don’t leave Hakuba-kun there with your doves alone.”

He blinked, a bit startled. “How’d you know about that?”

“Because he used it as an excuse not to stay over here, since the professor was trying  _ really _ hard to convince him otherwise.” 

“Ah, that makes sense. Hakuba always has preferred his Western style beds when he can.” Languidly, he rose from his seat, stretching as he did so. “Well, I’ll follow you out then, just…” He looked over to the lab entrance, resolve solidifying as a rough plan formed in his mind, “give me a minute to talk to Haibara.”

Akako shook her head, jangling her keys to let him know that she was his only way back. “Okay, but I’ll only wait for five minutes.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder and left the vicinity, Agasa’s voice floating back his direction as she made it back to the front of the house. He sighed before taking in a deep breath, walking over to the door to Haibara’s lab to knock.

“Yes?” Came the girl’s voice, obviously distracted.

“Can I talk to you for a bit?” Silence. And then an answer.

“Fine, but make it quick.” The door opened, and he was greeted with a screen chock full of images of Shinichi’s hanahaki, pictures from inside his body hanging about. Each of them was a different type of scan, all of them dated and ordered in such a way that one could see the growth and loss of the mass over time. Haibara was still printing out images, hanging the new ones she must’ve taken shortly after Akako had finished.

“What do you want?” The girl grunted, reaching to clip on an image to a string a bit above her reach. “As you can see, I’m quite busy.”

“I just wanted to know if Akako helped out much. I mean, she talked about something working but I uh, wanted to check with you if that really was the case.”

Haibara stepped back, looking at some of the photos she had hung so far before facing him. “From the looks of it, yes. So far, she’s done much more than I’ve been able to do in the past week. I’d try to replicate her methods myself, but it doesn’t look like something a normal person can do.”

Kaito snickers at her contorted face. He had felt the same way the first time he had seen Akako’s magic at work. “If I’m remembering correctly, it’s more of an inherited bloodline magic sort of thing. Not quite sure on the specifics myself, but did she bother to tell you the type of magic she used?” 

“She did call herself the best in red magic, but I can only assume that it’s a part of magic grouping rather than a type, yes?” Kaito nodded at that, double checking his vague memories of the times Akako had talked to him about her magic. “I see, then that would mean she did  _ not _ mention the type while she was here. Did you find it important for me to know?” Her eyes were sharp, piercing him where he stood as he could only helplessly bob his head again.

“Yeah, she said it was strange, that the usual magic she used for wounds and the like weren’t working, so she started trying different bits of different types of magic and the one that worked was… well, her specialty actually. Love magic.”

Haibara’s mouth opened and closed at that, reminding him dreadfully of a fish.

“I know, it’s kind of hard to believe, but-”

“No, I believe you. You’ll find in my occupation that very little is shocking any longer, and I don’t see how anything can still astound me at this point, but there’s always gotta be something that keeps me on my toes I suppose. Thank you, Kid. That was indeed quite useful information. I’ll let you know when Kudou-kun has awoken.”

“Thanks, but you don’t have to call me Kid anymore. I think everyone here but Heiji knows my identity at this point, and you seem to know how to keep secrets pretty well, so I don’t mind you using my real name.”

“Your real name?” Haibara seemed genuinely confused at that, but Kaito guessed that since she  _ had _ been in the lab most of the time she must’ve not picked up on it. Abruptly, he felt quite bad for the little scientist, since she probably hadn’t had much rest since Shinichi had arrived. “I must’ve missed it, my apologies.”

‘Don’t be sorry, you’ve been working this entire time.” He had the strongest urge then to pat her head. He refrained from doing that. “The name’s Kuroba Kaito, nice to formally meet you.”

“Yes, likewise.” She said, voice distant, thoughts swirling in her eyes as she brought a hand to her chin. “Actually, on second thought, it’s best you don’t come here when he wakes up.”

“I’m sorry?” Kaito asked, not figuring how that decision made sense.

“As you know, it’s been heavily suspected that repressed emotions are the core reason that his hanahaki exists, and if what you say about the love magic is right, and Shinichi has connected that Kid and Kaito are the same person, as much as I suspect he already knows given that he ended up here tonight instead of staying in Osaka, then it’s best you don’t appear before him for a while. It may take some time to sort out his emotions given the condition he was in before he came, so I’ll let you know when you can visit.”

“But-”

“No ‘but’s, doctor’s orders. Now out, I want to get more than five hours of sleep tonight.” Haibara pushed him out, and sure, he could’ve fought her for one last chance to see Shinichi, but she was right. It was getting late, and they both needed to sleep. 

“Alright, alright then, I’m leaving, but I expect updates.”

“You and everyone else involved.” She muttered, but waved back nonetheless as he left.

Kaito barely caught Akako in time for a drive back home, thanks to Agasa’s insistence that she take a look at a new gadget he had made. After returning home, he was greeted by his doves and a passed out Saguru on the couch. Even as tired as he was, Kaito moved the detective to an actual bed before passing out on his own. It was the least he could do after all his help.

After that, time went rather quickly. Saguru left the next night, but not before getting Haibara’s number from him. “Just in case,” he had insisted as he was boarding his plane back to England. Shortly following this, it had been reported to him that Shinichi had woken back up, but that Haibara wasn’t letting many people to come see him. Heiji had told him shortly before departing back to Osaka that he had seen Shinichi and that he was doing okay, but that they were still experiencing a lot of pain. His anxiety spiked with the knowledge that his detective was suffering, but Kaito’s class schedule kept him too busy and occupied to let his mind think about much else. Despite that, every spare moment was spent thinking about Shinichi, how he was doing and if he was thinking of him just as much as he was. He was spiraling in a slow and prolonged way, and while it didn’t bode so well for his courses, Kaito was fairly certain that even distracted he could ace them.

Two weeks following the day Shinichi had woken up was the day when he had had enough. Haibara was refusing to even negotiate, and Kaito wasn’t even allowed to text him! It was unfair, and ridiculous, and Aoko would just pat his head sympathetically in the way she always did. It hurt even worse to know that Aoko had successfully asked Akako out before her stay in Tokyo ended, so most news from her was about the witch in Hokkaido and how much she loved her and how great it was to be in a relationship. Any advice followed the same vein, meaning he had no where else to turn.

He frowned into his pillow, having remembered all that after having awoken in the dead of night, and felt terrible about himself. It didn’t help that he had woken up at two in the morning with the incredible urge to just  _ run _ . Obviously, he couldn’t do that, as his doves would not be pleased at all by the sudden noise  _ or _ movement. His mind, however, sharp as it was, thought of the most brilliant alternative. Of _ course _ , why hadn’t he thought to do this before? Kaito smiled deviously at his own plan, rising from his bed to prepare. It was time he got to see his detective again.

\- < O > -

It had been two weeks since he had woken up, and Haibara hadn’t let him leave her lab  _ once. _ Sure, in the beginning, Shinichi had been understanding. He had done everything she had asked of him, and yet, for some reason, he wasn’t allowed to use his phone, his communication being mediated by Haibara, or talk to anyone that wasn’t pre-approved by her.

“You have a lowered immune system after the heist incident,” she calmly explained to him, again, though he had an inkling that she was making it all up to keep him there, “I can’t just let anyone come and see you whenever they want.”

“You let Hattori in.” Shinichi pointed out, distinctly remembering the time Heiji had come over unannounced to talk to him before returning home. 

She scowled at him, hitting him with her clipboard lightly. “I’m no fool, I wasn’t gonna stop the human tornado from his destination.” He laughed at that, almost not hearing her mutter the - “Besides, he’s not the worrying subject at hand,” - right afterwards. He pretended like he hadn’t caught what she had said, so Haibara waved it off with a joke and carried on her with her work thinking it had gone unheard. A while later, she announced she was leaving, saying she had been forced into going on an excursion with the Detective Boys as break, and that she wouldn’t be back till the next day. “Take some pain medicine if you need it, but not exceeding more than two every four hours,” she advised distractedly, referencing the bottles on the counter as she put on a coat. Haibara says something about Agasa staying so he could still make him meals before realizing the time and rushing out with a quick farewell. He bid her goodbye and was left alone in the tiny room again.

He tried to nap, but found it hard to sleep comfortably in this room. Maybe it was because he had to sit facing forward and not squirm so that his IVs didn’t tangle, or maybe it was simply because the one window the lab had reflected sunlight right into some of the lab equipment in just the right way, waking him up when he still felt tired, or  _ maybe _ it was because he had been there for two weeks. It didn’t help that the days had started to blur together and that his contact with others had plummeted, resulting in less things to keep track of the time by. He had read nearly all of his books that had been brought over, and had recently resorted to reading the terrible novels Ran had lent him and the lengthy science manuals previously present in the lab to keep himself from getting too bored. It passed the time, but it didn’t stop the pain, and it didn’t stop him from ultimately feeling even worse than before. All of the circumstances combined just made for a dreary existence.

This, however, didn’t mean he wanted something particularly exciting to happen to him. He just wanted to not be on bed rest anymore, not have anything like say, a mysterious shadow walking around the lab window past midnight. 

Shinichi usually wasn’t even awake during this time of night, but the bed had been particularly uncomfortable that day, and since Haibara had left with the Detective Boys earlier, and Agasa was most certainly sleeping, there was nothing that could be done about it. Seeing the shadow just made him tense, and made him think, ah, they had missed someone from the Black Organization. Someone had fled in time from certain death and was seeking vengeance. 

It wasn’t outside the scope of possibilities, but his chest hurt thinking about it, so he opted for the much better option of pretending to be asleep. Hopefully, whoever it was that was entering didn’t have him as a target.

His eyes closed, ears straining for any sound he could make out, but he could barely hear the rustle of clothes until it was right next to him. A hand touched his arm, lightly shaking him as a familiar voice asked if he was awake, but he couldn’t place who it was that was talking, not with their voice as hushed as it was.

“C’mon meitantei, wake up.” Wait, hold up. Shinichi’s eyes snapped open at that as he took in the person’s appearance next to him, but he forgot that the lights weren’t on, so he couldn’t really see anything other than their silhouette. “Oh, uh, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to talk.” Nope, that was definitely Kaito, he didn’t need to see his face to know that.

Not ideal, but he  _ did _ suppose it cured his boredom. Sighing, he turned on the desk lamp next to him for some light.

“Hey, what if Haibara sees the light and comes in?” Kaito hissed, looking back toward the hall door with suspicion. Shinichi shook his head, pulling his legs up and motioning for him to sit down. 

“She won’t, she’s out of town right now, so you’ll be fine.”

Accepting his explanation without complaint, Kaito complied, sitting cross-legged at the end of the bed as his eyes wandered around the room, taking in the details, “I see.” Neither of them said anything for a while, the wall clock ticking away the seconds in the absence of their talking. “So,” Kaito said, shifting his position after Shinichi had counted to forty-six, “How are you feeling?”

“Not fantastic,” he breathed out, not really sure how much to give away, ultimately settling for just trying not to sound so morose, “but it’s manageable with some medicine.” 

Kaito made a noise of understanding, before the ticking resumed. Shinichi contemplated turning on the old television set in the corner just for a different background noise before Kaito spoke up again.

“I was never told but, um, did you ever figure out what it was that caused the hanahaki? Or what made you cough so much?”

“Straight to the point, huh?” Shinichi huffed, adjusting the pillow behind his back so he’d more comfortable. “Well, yes, and no. We think that there were multiple factors that lead to me getting hanahaki, but that I just happened to meet all the requirements at the right time. As for the latter question…” He trailed off, watching Kaito’s body language attentively. “Haibara would say differently from me, but I say it was caused by doubt.”

“Strange that you two would disagree on something like that given your the one with the condition.” The detective bobbed his head slightly in agreeance while Kaito tilted his head in thought, “But if she doesn’t think it’s doubt, then what  _ does _ she think it is?”

Shinichi cringed recalling the conversation, or rather argument, that they had over it. He coughed, not because of the hanahaki, but rather to cover up his embarrassment “Love, she thought it was, uh, love.” He could feel his ears warming rapidly, so he tried to rationalize it as best as he could. “Said something about love magic being used to help mitigate my symptoms and the spread of the disease, obviously something that was done when I was passed out, but-” he coughed, feeling the plant inside him pulse slightly, “I think she was saying it just to tease me. Something you’re not unused to doing, right, Kaito-kun?”

The thief gasped slightly, bringing his hands to his cheeks, “You knew? When did you-?”

“I figured it out shortly before I passed out last heist. Essentially, my body was giving me  _ very _ strong suggestions that you were Kid from the beginning. It wasn’t my intention to figure out, I assure you, but for some reason I wouldn’t allow myself to let you two be the same person in my head.”

“That’s why you thought the hanahaki represented doubt?” Kaito asked, leaning in, enraptured by the speculation. 

“Right,” Shinichi managed without stumbling over his words, the blush returning easily. “Because the very first time I saw you at the café, I thought you were Kid, but the moment I convinced myself you weren’t a phantom thief, I started coughing. Every moment after that, anytime I thought of you and Kid at the same time, differentiating you as either separate entities or insisting you couldn't be both, I was unable to keep my composure. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 as they say, but it really makes me feel stupid that I couldn’t figure it out sooner.”

Kaito reached over to pat his shoulder encouragingly, “From what I can tell, that’s ridiculously complicated, and if thinking about it brought you pain, then it’s no wonder you didn’t ponder on it anymore then you had to.” He paused, searching his face for something that Shinichi wasn’t aware of. “But, about the love thing…”

Shinichi swallowed. His mouth was dry. “What about it?”

“Well, I don’t think the little scientist was completely wrong.” He must’ve made a look because he waved his hands in front of him defensively, “ _ Not _ to assume your feelings of course, but the magic part, I uh, she’s a friend of mine’s actually, the one who did the actual magic, quite good at it I assure you, and I trust her to know what she’s talking about, but she’s the one who found out that love magic was the thing to,’ Kaito waved a hand referencing his chest area, Shinichi looking down out of habit more than anything at the gesture, “you know, retract the roots of the plant organism… thing.”

“Yeah…”

“And I mean, Agasa might’ve also mentioned something too when I was here the night I brought you to the lab, but I mean, he might’ve just been pulling my leg, so I tried not to let it-”

“Wait, wait, what did Agasa say?” Shinichi hadn’t mentioned much about Kaito in general, not wanting anyone to jump to the conclusions that they had so obviously jumped to anyways, but Agasa was fairly perceptive when it came to the positive spectrum of emotions, and he wanted to know what had happened to prompt him to say something to Kaito at all.

“Like, exactly?” The other squeaked out, now his turn for his face to start turning pink. “I don’t know if I can recall it down to the detail, but, oh wow, I had kind of hoped to forget something like this, I’m sure it’s not that important.” Kaito laughed, though it didn’t take a detective to hear the nervousness in it. 

“Perhaps not, but your reaction has certainly piqued my interest even further, so I must insist that you tell me what occurred if you want to continue staying here.” Shinichi didn’t realize how threatening the sentence sounded until he had said it outloud, and felt immediate remorse by the way Kaito nodded his head stiffly. Yeah, it had definitely been a while since he had to talk to anyone other than Haibara, and it was starting to show. 

“It’s not a  _ huge  _ deal,” he started, lulling his head to the side as the blush crept onto his cheeks, eyes darting everywhere  _ but _ where Shinichi sat. “Agasa and I were just chatting, talking about how he knew my dad and such, when we ended up talking about your hanahaki and I had, you know, expressed my frustration at not knowing what had been going on and not being able to do anything, and from there he  _ might’ve _ insinuated that I liked you, and then I  _ might’ve _ kind of let him know he was  _ probably _ right, to which, as you would know,” Kaito laughed nervously again, locking eyes with him despite how flushed he was, “is terribly embarrassing, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. Anyways, I totally expected him to pity me, right? But no, instead he comes over and says something along the lines of me not being the only one and I was like “What? There’s no way  _ the  _ Kudou Shinichi likes me,” so I’ve just been, kind of unsuccessfully ignoring that for the past two weeks despite what I previously said, so yup. There’s that.” He clapped his hands together, causing Shinichi to flinch. “Oh, sorry, for that… and for rambling too, but that’s, uh, that’s the story.” Kaito smiled after that, no mask to hide behind, all his completely frazzled emotions on full display as his confidence wavered. 

Despite himself, Shinichi felt moved, honored even, that he’d let his ‘cool guy’ facade down around him, even if it was just for telling a story. Oh, and of course, Shinichi was beyond flattered, but he had  _ no idea _ how to respond. The longer he took to respond, the more his grin faltered, and he had to say  _ something _ soon, or he’d just look bad. Suddenly, he was reminded of Heiji’s words to him back in Osaka, advising him to sit down and talk it out if he could, and that maybe he could figure something out that way. Looking back up at Kaito, he realized now may be the best time of any to do just that.

“That certainly does sound like something Agasa would do.” Shinichi said, the understanding in his voice  _ hopefully _ coming across to the other. “He’s been a lot more nosy recently, trying to do things for me and Haibara without us asking for it, and well, he usually knows what he’s doing. He’s trying to get us to stop being so independent after the takedown of the organization, learn to open up and trust more people, and I know he’s certainly not wrong there… it’s just  _ hard _ .” He intertwined his fingers together, tightening his grip on his hands to force himself to keep talking. “Everything is hard to get used to after having to be in hiding and having to worry if you’re being watched or bugged at any given moment, and it’s taken a while. I’m getting there, with time, but uh, trust is probably the hardest to give… right after love.”

He could feel Kaito shift on the bed, and he breathed in carefully before continuing. “You’re very nice, to find a way to like someone like me, knowing all that you do. I’m not sure why Agasa said what he did, but…” he wanted to say he didn’t reciprocate, to urge him to search for someone else, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to Kaito aloud. He could feel the hanahaki in his lungs squirming, letting him know that it  _ knew _ he was about to doubt  _ again _ , doubt both his and Kaito’s feelings.

“I do... really like you Shinichi.” Kaito said quietly, the emotion he felt coming from the phrase catching his attention. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, I never really expected you to after all.” Kaito sniffed, and he saw tears in the corners of his eyes as he avoided Shinichi’s gaze. It felt like his chest was being weighed down by some sort of extreme gravity at seeing that, and he couldn’t find any words to say to comfort him. “You’re a great person, no matter what you say. You’ve saved so many people, and helped me in ways you’ll never know, but if you just want to be friends, that’s okay with me too… so long as I can stay by your side.”

His mouth felt dry again, and he wanted to try to tell him, somehow, that he was wrong. His love wasn’t unreciprocated, it  _ was  _ mutual, just like Agasa had said, but that he just didn’t want to say it, and to not  _ cry _ , because it hurt him in a way he couldn’t describe when he was sad, that it made  _ him _ want to cry, that all he wanted to do was comfort him, but none of that came out. Shinichi just watched him, like an idiot, unable to properly even discuss things, deflecting the issue to other reasons every time he talked and now someone was suffering for it.

“You don’t have to respond,” the thief murmured eventually, eyes down cast as he moved to get up, “I’ll just uh, leave you to think about-”

“No,” He said without thinking, grabbing Kaito’s arm, “Don’t go. Your friend, and Haibara, they were right. So was Hattori. And Agasa. Everyone really. I’ve just been running away for so long, I think I’ve forgotten how to stop.” Wait. Damn, that was too vague and he knew it: there was still a lot left unsaid, but he wasn’t good with emotions, and no matter how adept he was at speaking, he could never combine the two very eloquently. Shinichi took in a shaky breath, gathering himself together as he provided some time to gather his courage. “Look, I’m no good talking about my emotions, so I’ll try to just be direct as possible about this, alright? Sorry in advance.” And before Kaito could object, he was.dragging him back down to the bed and crashing their lips together. Shinichi could feel the elation blossom throughout his body, could feel Kaito melt into the kiss about a second later, but he knew if he didn’t end it then, he’d lose the bravery to say what he wanted to. Regrettably, he pulled away, grabbing the magician’s face with both hands, forcing them to look at each other. Kaito’s face was burning under his fingertips, and Shinichi knew that he himself probably wasn’t too far off from what he was seeing, but the detective pushed himself to talk anyways, overlooking how flustered they both were. “I like you too, and I can’t say when it started, or how it happened, but I can’t let you cry in front of me thinking I’ve rejected you when I haven’t, okay?” Kaito nodded, tears still in his eyes when Shinichi felt the mass in his chest pulse again.

Then he started coughing.

Letting go of Kaito’s face, he brought his hands closer as he curled in on himself. Unlike all the other times though, the coughing didn’t cause him much pain, which he found he was quite grateful for. Shinichi could feel how worried Kaito was, but he held up a hand as the coughing came to a halt. There were flowers, petals, and leaves in his hand; however, the parts of the plant that came out didn’t look as alive as they usually did, in fact, it looked... “Dead.” He said, first to himself, and then to Kaito. “They’re dead! Do you think…”

“Maybe,” Kaito whispered, looking at the dried up flowers in his hand, petals flaking off easily with a little poke. “Do you think it’s completely gone?” Shinichi breathed in as deep as he could, but didn’t feel any pain, and couldn’t help how happy he felt, the grin on his face spreading as he looked back to the magician.

“I don’t feel anything!” He exclaimed. Their eyes started watering with tears again, Kaito almost full out crying again by the time he leaned over to hug him in congratulations, arms holding him close, squeezing him in a way that made him feel at home: Shinichi couldn’t imagine it feeling any other way. They talked to each other excitedly after that, and were borderline cheering when the last flower crumpled away. He hadn’t even realized that Agasa had come to see what the commotion was about until Kaito had sprung off the end of the bed to bring the professor over to run the tests Haibara usually did to see if it  _ was really gone,  _ completely by-passing that “What are you doing in my house?” question.

After calming down enough to get the scans taken, and waiting a few subsequent seconds as the machine processed the image for any organic substance that  _ wasn’t  _ human, Agasa announced that it was  _ indeed _ gone, or at least if the time stamped photos lining the walls had anything to say about it. At that point all of them cheered, and the professor said that he had bought some sweets recently and would be back with some to properly commemorate the occasion. 

“Haibara’s going to kill me,” Shinichi said shortly after Agasa had departed, “either because I got cured while I was away and she didn’t get to see it, or because I allowed you to stay here and talk to me despite her adamance for us not to meet.” He snickered, imagining her expression once she found out that he had gotten better without her help. The tug of his shirt distracted him though, Shinichi looking up to Kaito, who, bashfully, looked away from him. “What’s up?”

“Um,” Kaito hummed, focusing as much attention down to his feet as he could, “so I know that your hanahaki’s gone now, and I’m really happy that it is, and I’m so happy that you’re safe, but, um,” He started rocking back and forth a bit, still not looking at him directly as the magician tried to find the words to say. “I just wanted to ask, if you know, we could do that thing again?”

_ Cute,  _ Shinichi couldn’t help but think fondly, grabbing at Kaito’s hand to hold in his own. “Of course we can,” he replied, knowing what he meant immediately, “after all, the first one’s kind of a statement more than anything. I can show you a much better kiss than that right now if you’d like?” He didn’t really know where these lines were coming from, probably one of the dollar store novels he had stooped to reading during his stay in the lab, but it seemed to make Kaito even more flustered than he felt, so he could only imagine how overwhelmed the other must feel.

“Were you always this cheesy?” He grumbled under his breath, causing Shinichi to laugh.

“Were you always so expressive?” The detective teased back, causing Kaito to pout.

“Ew, stop. I’ll have you know I have an excellent poker face.”

“Only when you want to use it at least,” Shinichi retorted light heartedly, pulling Kaito closer by his shirt. “Now let me give you another kiss before the professor comes back.”

“Okay,” Kaito answered breathlessly, face already as red as it could probably get. “I think I can allow that.” 

So Shinichi did, and it was wonderful. He felt a weightlessness he hadn’t felt in years, like that of both flying and falling simultaneously while also being grounded, feeling every sensation against him like he hadn’t been touched before. He brought him closer, hands holding firmly onto his waist as he kissed up into Kaito’s mouth, wanting to delve deeper, but it was over before he wanted it to be, Kaito straightening as he heard Agasa returning with the sweets he had promised. Shinichi frowned at the lack of warmth as the magician moved away, but acted like that wasn’t the problem when Agasa entered the room to pass him a plate. After a glance around the room, he apologized for not getting drinks as it had completely slipped his mind.

“I’ll be right back, I promise.” Neither of them objected as the professor disappeared around the corner, Kaito visibly relaxing at his absence. Shaking himself out of it though, the magician walked back over to Shinichi, and leaned in so that he could talk in a whisper.

“Sorry, I’m not really used to doing stuff like that,” he admitted shyly, “So I wasn’t too eager to get caught by your professor friend, but…” his voice dropped, turning into a purr as Kaito’s poker face slipped into place, his body angling even further forward so as to speak into his ear, “I promise we can kiss as much as you want later, but on one condition.” A finger curled under his chin, not allowing him to turn away.

“Oh? What condition might that be?” Shinichi asked, struggling to keep himself from being affected by the close proximity of Kaito and the level of intimacy the position denoted.

“You’ll have to agree to be my boyfriend first, deal?” And if there was a way to get both first and second-hand embarrassment, he was most certainly experiencing it now. Collecting himself the best he could, Shinichi also leaned in, ears blazing as whispered his answer to Kaito with a small tug to his waist.

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone!  
> Thanks so much for reading this fic: I've really enjoyed reading your comments and hearing your reactions to the story, and really love how supportive this community is <3 I can't wait to write more in this fandom~  
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed the ending as much as I enjoyed writing it, see you all again soon~ :D

**Author's Note:**

> I forgot to add this initially, but here's the [ link ](https://possessedteacup.tumblr.com/post/625016743688126464/speed-paint-i-see-the-red-string-of-fate) to my partner's work for the BB: I super appreciate their hard work <3 but do feel a bit sorry for choosing one of the hardest flowers to draw ;;; my bad bro, but you did so good!


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